Subframe Processing Method and Device

ABSTRACT

A subframe processing method and device are disclosed. A terminal can determine a special subframe in a non-contiguous secondary carrier according to a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and a channel listening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, and a channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channel listening start reference time point of the non-contiguous secondary carrier that are obtained, where the special subframe includes all or some gap symbols occupied by the channel listening duration, use all symbols except the gap symbols in the special subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according to the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/393,691, filed on Dec. 29, 2016, which is a continuation ofInternational Application No. PCT/CN2014/081263, filed on Jun. 30, 2014.All of the afore-mentioned patent applications are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entireties.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the field of communicationstechnologies, and in particular, to a subframe processing method anddevice.

BACKGROUND

In an LTE (Long Term Evolution) system or an LTE-A (LTE-Advanced, LongTerm Evolution Advanced) system, to increase uplink and downlink peakrates in the system, a CA (Carrier Aggregation) technology isintroduced, that is, a plurality of contiguous or non-contiguouscarriers is aggregated to simultaneously serve UE (User Equipment) whennecessary, so as to provide a required rate. The CA technology may beused to maximize resource utilization and effectively utilize discretespectrum resources.

Specifically, in the CA technology, a network-side device such as a basestation may configure a plurality of operating carriers for each UE,where one carrier is a primary carrier, and the other carriers aresecondary carriers. In addition, to maximize resource utilization, eachsecondary carrier may be configured in an unlicensed spectrum. Theunlicensed spectrum generally refers to a common spectrum, that is, aspectrum that can be used by any organization or any individual.Therefore, generally, a rule of listening before transmitting needs tobe followed in the use of the unlicensed spectrum, that is, a signal canbe transmitted in the unlicensed spectrum only when it is detected thatthe spectrum is idle. In other words, if a secondary carrier is deployedin the unlicensed spectrum, the rule of listening before transmittingalso needs to be followed in the use of the secondary carrier.Therefore, transmission in the secondary carrier may be discontinuous.

Specifically, for a non-contiguous carrier deployed in a spectrum suchas an unlicensed spectrum, a base station may generally perform a CCA(Clear Channel Assessment) to assess whether a channel occupied by thenon-contiguous carrier is idle, so as to determine whether the channelcan be used. Generally, when the base station performs the CCA, aminimum duration of the CCA (which may also be referred to as a channellistening duration or a channel assessment duration) is not shorter than20 s. In addition, a maximum duration in which the base stationtransmits a signal by using the non-contiguous carrier every time cannotexceed 13 ms (that is, a maximum continuous channel occupancy durationof the non-contiguous carrier cannot exceed 13 ms). In addition, if thebase station determines that the channel is not occupied by otherdevices for a long time, the base station periodically occupies thechannel, where every two durations of occupancy by the base station maybe separated by a CCA.

It can be known from the foregoing content that, for any UE, when thereis a non-contiguous carrier in a plurality of operating carriersconfigured for the UE, there is a minimum duration of 20S (namely, a CCAduration) in which the non-contiguous carrier cannot transmit anysignal. Although the CCA duration may occupy merely less than one symbolin a subframe, because the UE does not know a time point at which theCCA occurs, the UE cannot exclude the symbol occupied by the CCA fromthe entire subframe in which the CCA occurs. Consequently, no signal canbe transmitted in 14 symbols of the entire subframe in which the CCAoccurs, and resource utilization is reduced.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present invention provide a subframe processingmethod and device to resolve a currently existing problem that resourceutilization is low because a gap symbol caused by a CCA cannot beexcluded from an entire subframe.

According to a first aspect, a network-side device is provided. Thenetwork-side device includes an information determining module,configured to determine first carrier configuration information of afirst secondary carrier of a terminal, where the first secondary carrieris a non-contiguous carrier, and the first carrier configurationinformation includes a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration anda channel listening duration of the first secondary carrier, and furtherincludes a channel occupancy start reference time point of the firstsecondary carrier and/or a channel listening start reference time pointof the first secondary carrier. The network-side device also includes aninformation sending module, configured to send the first carrierconfiguration information determined by the information determiningmodule to the terminal, so that the terminal performs the followingoperations according to the received first carrier configurationinformation: determining a special subframe in the first secondarycarrier, where the special subframe includes all or some of gap symbols,and the gap symbols are symbols that are completely or partly occupiedby the channel listening duration; and using all symbols except the gapsymbols in the special subframe as symbols that can be occupied by aPDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or a PDSCH (PhysicalDownlink Shared Channel), and correspondingly receiving or decoding thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according to thedetermined symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

With reference to the first aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the first aspect, the network-side device further includes asymbol designation module, where the symbol designation module isconfigured to designate a PDSCH start symbol location for the firstsecondary carrier before the determined first carrier configurationinformation is sent to the terminal if it is determined that the firstsecondary carrier is a cross-scheduled carrier; and the informationsending module is specifically configured to send, to the terminal whenit is determined that the first secondary carrier is a cross-scheduledcarrier, the first carrier configuration information carrying symbollocation indication information used to indicate the PDSCH start symbollocation, so that after the terminal determines the special subframe inthe first secondary carrier according to the first carrier configurationinformation, the terminal uses, according to the PDSCH start symbollocation indicated in the symbol location indication information, eachnon-gap symbol after the PDSCH start symbol location in the specialsubframe as a symbol that can be occupied by the PDSCH.

With reference to the first aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the first aspect, in a second possible implementation mannerof the first aspect, the network-side device further includes a channelmonitoring module, where the channel monitoring module is configured tomonitor, after the first carrier configuration information of the firstsecondary carrier is determined, whether a channel corresponding to thefirst secondary carrier is occupied by another network-side device in atime period corresponding to the channel listening duration; and theinformation sending module is further configured to send a carrierrelease message to the terminal when a monitoring result of the channelmonitoring module is yes, so that the terminal stops, according to thecarrier release message, a data receiving or decoding operationperformed on the first secondary carrier.

With reference to the first aspect, or the first or the second possibleimplementation manner of the first aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner of the first aspect, the information sendingmodule is specifically configured to send the first carrierconfiguration information determined by the information determiningmodule to the terminal by using any one or more types of the followingsignaling: an RRC (Radio Resource Control) message, a MAC (Media accesscontrol) layer PDU (Protocol Data Unit) message, or physical layersignaling.

With reference to any one of the first aspect, or the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner of the first aspect, the informationsending module is specifically configured to send the channel occupancystart time point and/or the channel listening start time point in thefirst carrier configuration information to the terminal at any timepoint after the first secondary carrier begins to occupy the channel;and send the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and thechannel listening duration of the first secondary carrier in the firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal when the firstsecondary carrier is configured for the terminal.

With reference to any one of the first aspect, or the first to thefourth possible implementation manners of the first aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner of the first aspect, the informationdetermining module is further configured to determine second carrierconfiguration information of the first secondary carrier, where thesecond carrier configuration information includes any one or more typesof the following information: system broadcast information of the firstsecondary carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first secondary carrier includes a common channel, where thecommon channel includes any one or more of a PBCH (Physical broadcastchannel), a PSS (Primary synchronization signal), an SSS (Secondarysynchronization signal), or a reference signal; first indicationinformation, where the first indication information is used to indicatethat the first secondary carrier does not include a common channel; orsecond indication information, where the second indication informationis used to indicate that a common channel used in the first secondarycarrier is a common channel in an extended format; and the informationsending module is further configured to send the second carrierconfiguration information determined by the information determiningmodule to the terminal, so that the terminal performs the followingoperation according to the received second carrier configurationinformation: determining whether the first secondary carrier includesthe common channel, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, skipping excluding, from the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel; or determining whether the common channel in theextended format is used in the first secondary carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding,from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extendedformat; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodingthe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondarycarrier, skipping excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel in the extended format.

According to a second aspect, a network-side device is provided. Thenetwork-side device includes an information determining module,configured to determine first carrier configuration information of afirst carrier of a terminal, where the first carrier configurationinformation includes any one or more types of the following information:system broadcast information of the first carrier, where the systembroadcast information can indicate that the first carrier includes acommon channel, where the common channel includes any one or more of aPBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; first indicationinformation, where the first indication information is used to indicatethat the first carrier does not include a common channel; or secondindication information, where the second indication information is usedto indicate that a common channel used in the first carrier is a commonchannel in an extended format. The network-side device also includes aninformation sending module, configured to send the first carrierconfiguration information determined by the information determiningmodule to the terminal, so that the terminal performs the followingoperation according to the received first carrier configurationinformation: determining whether the first carrier includes the commonchannel, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or determining whetherthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first carrier,and when a determining result is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format;or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding,from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

According to a third aspect, a terminal is provided. The terminalincludes an information obtaining module, configured to obtain firstcarrier configuration information of a first secondary carrier, wherethe first secondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and the firstcarrier configuration information includes a maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration and a channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancy startreference time point and/or a channel listening start reference timepoint of the first secondary carrier. The terminal also includes asubframe determining module, configured to determine a special subframein the first secondary carrier according to the first carrierconfiguration information obtained by the information obtaining module,where the special subframe includes all or some of gap symbols, and thegap symbols are symbols that are completely or partly occupied by thechannel listening duration. The terminal also includes a subframeprocessing module, configured to use all symbols except the gap symbolsin the special subframe determined by the subframe determining module assymbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, andcorrespondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thespecial subframe according to the determined symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

With reference to the third aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the third aspect, the subframe determining module isspecifically configured to determine a channel occupancy end time pointor a channel listening start time point of the first secondary carrieraccording to the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration, thechannel listening duration, and the channel occupancy start referencetime point and/or the channel listening start reference time pointincluded in the first carrier configuration information, use M symbolsafter the determined channel occupancy end time point or the determinedchannel listening start time point as the gap symbols, and use thesubframe that includes all or some symbols of the M symbols as thespecial subframe, where the M symbols are determined according to thechannel listening duration, and M is a positive integer that is greaterthan or equal to 1.

With reference to the third aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the third aspect, in a second possible implementation mannerof the third aspect, if ending of channel occupancy of the firstsecondary carrier is limited to a subframe boundary, the subframedetermining module is specifically configured to determine the channeloccupancy end time point or the channel listening start time point ofthe first secondary carrier according to the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration, the channel listening duration, the channeloccupancy start reference time point and/or the channel listening startreference time point, and subframe boundary information included in thefirst carrier configuration information, use the M symbols after thedetermined channel occupancy end time point or the determined channellistening start time point as the gap symbols, and use the subframe thatincludes all or some symbols of the M symbols as the special subframe.

With reference to the third aspect, or the first or the second possibleimplementation manner of the third aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner of the third aspect, the subframe processingmodule is specifically configured to: if it is determined that the firstcarrier configuration information carries symbol location indicationinformation used to indicate a PDSCH start symbol location, use,according to the PDSCH start symbol location indicated in the symbollocation indication information, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCHstart symbol location in the special subframe as a symbol that can beoccupied by the PDSCH; or specifically configured to read a PCFICH(physical control format indicator channel) from a first symbol of thespecial subframe, determine, according to the PCFICH, the symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH, and use all symbols except the gap symbolsand the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH in the specialsubframe as the symbols that can be occupied by the PDSCH; orspecifically configured to read a PCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol ofthe special subframe, determine, according to the PCFICH, the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH, and use all symbols except the gapsymbols and the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH in the specialsubframe as the symbols that can be occupied by the PDSCH.

With reference to any one of the third aspect, or the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner of the third aspect, the terminal furtherincludes an information monitoring module, where the informationmonitoring module is configured to: for any gap symbol, perform energydetection on the gap symbol; and/or configured to monitor whether acarrier release message for the first secondary carrier is received froma network-side device; and the subframe processing module is furtherconfigured to: for any gap symbol, when it is determined that energy ofthe gap symbol detected by the information monitoring module is higherthan a specified energy threshold, stop receiving or decoding thespecial subframe that includes all or some symbols of the gap symbols;or when the information monitoring module detects that the carrierrelease message for the first secondary carrier is received from thenetwork-side device, further configured to stop a data receiving ordecoding operation performed on the first secondary carrier.

With reference to any one of the third aspect, or the first to thefourth possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner of the third aspect, the first carrierconfiguration information obtained by the information obtaining moduleis transmitted to the terminal by the network-side device.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of the thirdaspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,the first carrier configuration information obtained by the informationobtaining module is transmitted to the terminal by the network-sidedevice by using any one or more types of the following signaling: an RRCmessage, a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layer signaling.

With reference to the fifth or the sixth possible implementation mannerof the third aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner of thethird aspect, the channel occupancy start reference time point and/orthe channel listening start reference time point in the first carrierconfiguration information obtained by the information obtaining moduleare/is transmitted to the terminal by the network-side device at anytime point after the first secondary carrier begins to occupy thechannel; and the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and thechannel listening duration of the first secondary carrier in the firstcarrier configuration information obtained by the information obtainingmodule are transmitted to the terminal when the network-side deviceconfigures the first secondary carrier for the terminal.

With reference to any one of the third aspect, or the first to theseventh possible implementation manners of the third aspect, in aneighth possible implementation manner of the third aspect, theinformation obtaining module is further configured to receive secondcarrier configuration information delivered for the first secondarycarrier by the network-side device, where the second carrierconfiguration information includes any one or more types of thefollowing information: system broadcast information of the firstsecondary carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first secondary carrier includes a common channel, where thecommon channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first secondarycarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first secondary carrier is a commonchannel in an extended format; and the subframe processing module isfurther configured to: determine, according to the second carrierconfiguration information, whether the first secondary carrier includesthe common channel, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, exclude, from the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodingthe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondarycarrier, skip excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or further configured to determine, according to the secondcarrier configuration information, whether the common channel in theextended format is used in the first secondary carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, exclude, fromthe symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format;or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, skipexcluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of the thirdaspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the third aspect,the subframe processing module is specifically configured to: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe first indication information, or it is determined that the secondcarrier configuration information does not include the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first secondary carrier does not includethe common channel; or specifically configured to: if it is determinedthat the second carrier configuration information does not include thefirst indication information, or it is determined that the secondcarrier configuration information includes the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first secondary carrier includes thecommon channel.

With reference to the eighth or the ninth possible implementation mannerof the third aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of thethird aspect, the subframe processing module is specifically configuredto: if it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation includes the second indication information, determine thatthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first secondarycarrier; or specifically configured to: if it is determined that thesecond carrier configuration information does not include the secondindication information, determine that a common channel in anon-extended format is used in the first secondary carrier.

According to a fourth aspect, a terminal is provided. The terminalincludes: an information receiving module, configured to receive firstcarrier configuration information delivered for a first carrier by anetwork-side device, where the first carrier configuration informationincludes any one or more types of the following information: systembroadcast information of the first carrier, where the system broadcastinformation can indicate that the first carrier includes a commonchannel, where the common channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, aPSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; first indication information, wherethe first indication information is used to indicate that the firstcarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first carrier is a common channel inan extended format. The terminal also includes a subframe processingmodule, configured to determine, according to the first carrierconfiguration information, whether the first carrier includes the commonchannel, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skip excluding, from symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or determine, according to thefirst carrier configuration information, whether the common channel inthe extended format is used in the first carrier, and when a determiningresult is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in asubframe in the first carrier, exclude, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format; or when a determiningresult is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in asubframe in the first carrier, skip excluding, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format.

With reference to the fourth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the fourth aspect, the subframe processing module isspecifically configured to: if it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information includes the first indication information, orit is determined that the first carrier configuration information doesnot include the system broadcast information, determine that the firstcarrier does not include the common channel; or specifically configuredto: if it is determined that the first carrier configuration informationdoes not include the first indication information, or it is determinedthat the first carrier configuration information includes the systembroadcast information, determine that the first carrier includes thecommon channel.

With reference to the fourth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the fourth aspect, in a second possible implementation mannerof the fourth aspect, the subframe processing module is specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation includes the second indication information, determine thatthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first carrier;or specifically configured to: if it is determined that the firstcarrier configuration information does not include the second indicationinformation, determine that a common channel in a non-extended format isused in the first carrier.

According to a fifth aspect, a network-side device is provided. Thenetwork-side device includes: a processor, configured to determine firstcarrier configuration information of a first secondary carrier of aterminal, where the first secondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier,and the first carrier configuration information includes a maximumcontinuous channel occupancy duration and a channel listening durationof the first secondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancystart reference time point of the first secondary carrier and/or achannel listening start reference time point of the first secondarycarrier. The network-side device also includes a transmitter, configuredto send the first carrier configuration information determined by theprocessor to the terminal, so that the terminal performs the followingoperations according to the received first carrier configurationinformation: determining a special subframe in the first secondarycarrier, where the special subframe includes all or some of gap symbols,and the gap symbols are symbols that are completely or partly occupiedby the channel listening duration; and using all symbols except the gapsymbols in the special subframe as symbols that can be occupied by aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receiving or decoding thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according to thedetermined symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

With reference to the fifth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the fifth aspect, the processor is further configured todesignate a PDSCH start symbol location for the first secondary carrierbefore the determined first carrier configuration information is sent tothe terminal if it is determined that the first secondary carrier is across-scheduled carrier; and the transmitter is specifically configuredto send, to the terminal when it is determined that the first secondarycarrier is a cross-scheduled carrier, the first carrier configurationinformation carrying symbol location indication information used toindicate the PDSCH start symbol location, so that after the terminaldetermines the special subframe in the first secondary carrier accordingto the first carrier configuration information, the terminal uses,according to the PDSCH start symbol location indicated in the symbollocation indication information, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCHstart symbol location in the special subframe as a symbol that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

With reference to the fifth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the fifth aspect, in a second possible implementation mannerof the fifth aspect, the network-side device further includes a monitor,where the monitor is configured to monitor, after the first carrierconfiguration information of the first secondary carrier is determined,whether a channel corresponding to the first secondary carrier isoccupied by another network-side device in a time period correspondingto the channel listening duration; and the transmitter is furtherconfigured to send a carrier release message to the terminal when amonitoring result of the monitor is yes, so that the terminal stops,according to the carrier release message, a data receiving or decodingoperation performed on the first secondary carrier.

With reference to the fifth aspect, or the first or the second possibleimplementation manner of the fifth aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner of the fifth aspect, the transmitter isspecifically configured to send the first carrier configurationinformation determined by the processor to the terminal by using any oneor more types of the following signaling: an RRC message, a MAC layerPDU message, or physical layer signaling.

With reference to any one of the fifth aspect, or the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the fifth aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the transmitter isspecifically configured to send the channel occupancy start time pointand/or the channel listening start time point in the first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal at any time point after thefirst secondary carrier begins to occupy the channel; and send themaximum continuous channel occupancy duration and the channel listeningduration of the first secondary carrier in the first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal when the first secondarycarrier is configured for the terminal.

With reference to any one of the fifth aspect, or the first to thefourth possible implementation manners of the fifth aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner of the fifth aspect, the processor isfurther configured to determine second carrier configuration informationof the first secondary carrier, where the second carrier configurationinformation includes any one or more types of the following information:system broadcast information of the first secondary carrier, where thesystem broadcast information can indicate that the first secondarycarrier includes a common channel, where the common channel includes anyone or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; firstindication information, where the first indication information is usedto indicate that the first secondary carrier does not include a commonchannel; or second indication information, where the second indicationinformation is used to indicate that a common channel used in the firstsecondary carrier is a common channel in an extended format; and thetransmitter is further configured to send the second carrierconfiguration information determined by the processor to the terminal,so that the terminal performs the following operation according to thereceived second carrier configuration information: determining whetherthe first secondary carrier includes the common channel, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding,from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, skippingexcluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermining whether the common channel in the extended format is used inthe first secondary carrier, and when a determining result is yes, whenreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in thefirst secondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format; or when a determiningresult is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, fromthe symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

According to a sixth aspect, a network-side device is provided. Thenetwork-side device includes: a processor, configured to determine firstcarrier configuration information of a first carrier of a terminal,where the first carrier configuration information includes any one ormore types of the following information: system broadcast information ofthe first carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first carrier includes a common channel, where the commonchannel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first carrier doesnot include a common channel; or second indication information, wherethe second indication information is used to indicate that a commonchannel used in the first carrier is a common channel in an extendedformat. The network-side device also includes a transmitter, configuredto send the first carrier configuration information determined by theprocessor to the terminal, so that the terminal performs the followingoperation according to the received first carrier configurationinformation: determining whether the first carrier includes the commonchannel, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or determining whetherthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first carrier,and when a determining result is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format;or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding,from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

According to a seventh aspect, a terminal is provided. The terminalincludes: a receiver, configured to obtain first carrier configurationinformation of a first secondary carrier, where the first secondarycarrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and the first carrier configurationinformation includes a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration anda channel listening duration of the first secondary carrier, and furtherincludes a channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the first secondary carrier. Theterminal also includes a processor, configured to determine a specialsubframe in the first secondary carrier according to the first carrierconfiguration information obtained by the receiver, where the specialsubframe includes all or some of gap symbols, and the gap symbols aresymbols that are completely or partly occupied by the channel listeningduration; and use all symbols except the gap symbols in the determinedspecial subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the special subframe according to the determined symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

With reference to the seventh aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the seventh aspect, the processor is specifically configuredto determine a channel occupancy end time point or a channel listeningstart time point of the first secondary carrier according to the maximumcontinuous channel occupancy duration, the channel listening duration,and the channel occupancy start reference time point and/or the channellistening start reference time point included in the first carrierconfiguration information, use M symbols after the determined channeloccupancy end time point or the determined channel listening start timepoint as the gap symbols, and use the subframe that includes all or somesymbols of the M symbols as the special subframe, where the M symbolsare determined according to the channel listening duration, and M is apositive integer that is greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to the seventh aspect or the first possibleimplementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner of the seventh aspect, if ending of channeloccupancy of the first secondary carrier is limited to a subframeboundary, the processor is specifically configured to determine thechannel occupancy end time point or the channel listening start timepoint of the first secondary carrier according to the maximum continuouschannel occupancy duration, the channel listening duration, the channeloccupancy start reference time point and/or the channel listening startreference time point, and subframe boundary information included in thefirst carrier configuration information, use the M symbols after thedetermined channel occupancy end time point or the determined channellistening start time point as the gap symbols, and use the subframe thatincludes all or some symbols of the M symbols as the special subframe.

With reference to the seventh aspect, or the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, in a thirdpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, the processor isspecifically configured to: if it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information carries symbol location indication informationused to indicate a PDSCH start symbol location, use, according to thePDSCH start symbol location indicated in the symbol location indicationinformation, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCH start symbol locationin the special subframe as a symbol that can be occupied by the PDSCH;or specifically configured to read a physical control format indicatorchannel PCFICH from a first symbol of the special subframe, determine,according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH,and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDSCH; or specifically configured to read a PCFICH froman (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe, determine, according tothe PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH, and use allsymbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDSCH.

With reference to any one of the seventh aspect, or the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the seventh aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, the terminalfurther includes a monitor, where the monitor is configured to: for anygap symbol, perform energy detection on the gap symbol; and/orconfigured to monitor whether a carrier release message for the firstsecondary carrier is received from a network-side device; and theprocessor is further configured to: for any gap symbol, when it isdetermined that energy of the gap symbol detected by the monitor ishigher than a specified energy threshold, stop receiving or decoding thespecial subframe that includes all or some symbols of the gap symbols;or when the monitor detects that the carrier release message for thefirst secondary carrier is received from the network-side device,further configured to stop a data receiving or decoding operationperformed on the first secondary carrier.

With reference to any one of the seventh aspect, or the first to thefourth possible implementation manners of the seventh aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, the first carrierconfiguration information obtained by the receiver is transmitted to theterminal by the network-side device.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of theseventh aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of the seventhaspect, the first carrier configuration information obtained by thereceiver is transmitted to the terminal by the network-side device byusing any one or more types of the following signaling: an RRC message,a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layer signaling.

With reference to the fifth or the sixth possible implementation mannerof the seventh aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner ofthe seventh aspect, the channel occupancy start reference time pointand/or the channel listening start reference time point in the firstcarrier configuration information obtained by the receiver are/istransmitted to the terminal by the network-side device at any time pointafter the first secondary carrier begins to occupy the channel; and themaximum continuous channel occupancy duration and the channel listeningduration of the first secondary carrier in the first carrierconfiguration information obtained by the receiver are transmitted tothe terminal when the network-side device configures the first secondarycarrier for the terminal.

With reference to any one of the seventh aspect, or the first to theseventh possible implementation manners of the seventh aspect, in aneighth possible implementation manner of the seventh aspect, thereceiver is further configured to receive second carrier configurationinformation delivered for the first secondary carrier by thenetwork-side device, where the second carrier configuration informationincludes any one or more types of the following information: systembroadcast information of the first secondary carrier, where the systembroadcast information can indicate that the first secondary carrierincludes a common channel, where the common channel includes any one ormore of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; first indicationinformation, where the first indication information is used to indicatethat the first secondary carrier does not include a common channel; orsecond indication information, where the second indication informationis used to indicate that a common channel used in the first secondarycarrier is a common channel in an extended format; and the processor isfurther configured to: determine, according to the second carrierconfiguration information, whether the first secondary carrier includesthe common channel, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, exclude, from the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodingthe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondarycarrier, skip excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or further configured to determine, according to the secondcarrier configuration information, whether the common channel in theextended format is used in the first secondary carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, exclude, fromthe symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format;or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, skipexcluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of theseventh aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of the seventhaspect, the processor is specifically configured to: if it is determinedthat the second carrier configuration information includes the firstindication information, or it is determined that the second carrierconfiguration information does not include the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first secondary carrier does not includethe common channel; or specifically configured to: if it is determinedthat the second carrier configuration information does not include thefirst indication information, or it is determined that the secondcarrier configuration information includes the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first secondary carrier includes thecommon channel.

With reference to the eighth or the ninth possible implementation mannerof the seventh aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of theseventh aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe second indication information, determine that the common channel inthe extended format is used in the first secondary carrier; orspecifically configured to: if it is determined that the second carrierconfiguration information does not include the second indicationinformation, determine that a common channel in a non-extended format isused in the first secondary carrier.

According to an eighth aspect, a terminal is provided. The terminalincludes: a receiver, configured to receive first carrier configurationinformation delivered for a first carrier by a network-side device,where the first carrier configuration information includes any one ormore types of the following information: system broadcast information ofthe first carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first carrier includes a common channel, where the commonchannel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first carrier doesnot include a common channel; or second indication information, wherethe second indication information is used to indicate that a commonchannel used in the first carrier is a common channel in an extendedformat. The terminal also includes a processor, configured to determine,according to the first carrier configuration information, whether thefirst carrier includes the common channel, and when a determining resultis yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframein the first carrier, exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodinga PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermine, according to the first carrier configuration information,whether the common channel in the extended format is used in the firstcarrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extendedformat; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skip excluding,from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

With reference to the eighth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the eighth aspect, the processor is specifically configuredto: if it is determined that the first carrier configuration informationincludes the first indication information, or it is determined that thefirst carrier configuration information does not include the systembroadcast information, determine that the first carrier does not includethe common channel; or specifically configured to: if it is determinedthat the first carrier configuration information does not include thefirst indication information, or it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information includes the system broadcast information,determine that the first carrier includes the common channel.

With reference to the eighth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the eighth aspect, in a second possible implementation mannerof the eighth aspect, the processor is specifically configured to: if itis determined that the first carrier configuration information includesthe second indication information, determine that the common channel inthe extended format is used in the first carrier; or specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation does not include the second indication information,determine that a common channel in a non-extended format is used in thefirst carrier.

According to a ninth aspect, a subframe processing method is provided.The method includes: determining, by a network-side device, firstcarrier configuration information of a first secondary carrier of aterminal, where the first secondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier,and the first carrier configuration information includes a maximumcontinuous channel occupancy duration and a channel listening durationof the first secondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancystart reference time point of the first secondary carrier and/or achannel listening start reference time point of the first secondarycarrier. The method also includes transmitting the determined firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal, so that the terminalperforms the following operations according to the received firstcarrier configuration information: determining a special subframe in thefirst secondary carrier, where the special subframe includes all or someof gap symbols, and the gap symbols are symbols that are completely orpartly occupied by the channel listening duration; and using all symbolsexcept the gap symbols in the special subframe as symbols that can beoccupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according tothe determined symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH.

With reference to the ninth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the ninth aspect, before the transmitting the determined firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal, the method furtherincludes: if it is determined that the first secondary carrier is across-scheduled carrier, designating a PDSCH start symbol location forthe first secondary carrier; and the transmitting the determined firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal includes: when it isdetermined that the first secondary carrier is a cross-scheduledcarrier, transmitting, to the terminal, the first carrier configurationinformation carrying symbol location indication information used toindicate the PDSCH start symbol location, so that after the terminaldetermines the special subframe in the first secondary carrier accordingto the first carrier configuration information, the terminal uses,according to the PDSCH start symbol location indicated in the symbollocation indication information, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCHstart symbol location in the special subframe as a symbol that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

With reference to the ninth aspect or the first possible implementationmanner of the ninth aspect, in a second possible implementation mannerof the ninth aspect, after the determining first carrier configurationinformation of a first secondary carrier, the method further includes:monitoring whether a channel corresponding to the first secondarycarrier is occupied by another network-side device in a time periodcorresponding to the channel listening duration; and if a monitoringresult is yes, transmitting a carrier release message to the terminal,so that the terminal stops, according to the carrier release message, adata receiving or decoding operation performed on the first secondarycarrier.

With reference to the ninth aspect, or the first or the second possibleimplementation manner of the ninth aspect, in a third possibleimplementation manner of the ninth aspect, the transmitting thedetermined first carrier configuration information to the terminalincludes: transmitting the determined first carrier configurationinformation to the terminal by using any one or more types of thefollowing signaling: an RRC message, a MAC layer PDU message, orphysical layer signaling.

With reference to any one of the ninth aspect, or the first to the thirdpossible implementation manners of the ninth aspect, in a fourthpossible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, the transmitting thedetermined first carrier configuration information to the terminalincludes: transmitting the channel occupancy start time point and/or thechannel listening start time point in the first carrier configurationinformation to the terminal at any time point after the first secondarycarrier begins to occupy the channel; and when configuring the firstsecondary carrier for the terminal, transmitting the maximum continuouschannel occupancy duration and the channel listening duration of thefirst secondary carrier in the first carrier configuration informationto the terminal.

With reference to any one of the ninth aspect, or the first to thefourth possible implementation manners of the ninth aspect, in a fifthpossible implementation manner of the ninth aspect, the method furtherincludes: determining second carrier configuration information of thefirst secondary carrier, where the second carrier configurationinformation includes any one or more types of the following information:system broadcast information of the first secondary carrier, where thesystem broadcast information can indicate that the first secondarycarrier includes a common channel, where the common channel includes anyone or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; firstindication information, where the first indication information is usedto indicate that the first secondary carrier does not include a commonchannel; or second indication information, where the second indicationinformation is used to indicate that a common channel used in the firstsecondary carrier is a common channel in an extended format; andtransmitting the determined second carrier configuration information tothe terminal, so that the terminal performs the following operationaccording to the received second carrier configuration information:determining whether the first secondary carrier includes the commonchannel, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, skipping excluding, from the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel; or determining whether the common channel in theextended format is used in the first secondary carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding,from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extendedformat; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodingthe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondarycarrier, skipping excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel in the extended format.

According to a tenth aspect, a subframe processing method is provided.The method includes: determining, by a network-side device, firstcarrier configuration information of a first carrier of a terminal,where the first carrier configuration information includes any one ormore types of the following information: system broadcast information ofthe first carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first carrier includes a common channel, where the commonchannel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first carrier doesnot include a common channel; or second indication information, wherethe second indication information is used to indicate that a commonchannel used in the first carrier is a common channel in an extendedformat. The method also includes transmitting the determined firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal, so that the terminalperforms the following operation according to the received first carrierconfiguration information: determining whether the first carrierincludes the common channel, and when a determining result is yes, whenreceiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the firstcarrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodinga PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermining whether the common channel in the extended format is used inthe first carrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channelin the extended format.

According to an eleventh aspect, a subframe processing method isprovided. The method includes: obtaining, by a terminal, first carrierconfiguration information of a first secondary carrier, where the firstsecondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and the first carrierconfiguration information includes a maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration and a channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancy startreference time point and/or a channel listening start reference timepoint of the first secondary carrier. The method also includesdetermining a special subframe in the first secondary carrier accordingto the obtained first carrier configuration information, where thespecial subframe includes all or some of gap symbols, and the gapsymbols are symbols that are completely or partly occupied by thechannel listening duration. The method also includes using all symbolsexcept the gap symbols in the special subframe as symbols that can beoccupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according tothe determined symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, in a first possibleimplementation manner of the eleventh aspect, the determining a specialsubframe in the first secondary carrier according to the obtained firstcarrier configuration information includes: determining a channeloccupancy end time point or a channel listening start time point of thefirst secondary carrier according to the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration, the channel listening duration, and the channeloccupancy start reference time point and/or the channel listening startreference time point included in the first carrier configurationinformation, using M symbols after the determined channel occupancy endtime point or the determined channel listening start time point as thegap symbols, and using the subframe that includes all or some symbols ofthe M symbols as the special subframe, where the M symbols aredetermined according to the channel listening duration, and M is apositive integer that is greater than or equal to 1.

With reference to the eleventh aspect or the first possibleimplementation manner of the eleventh aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner of the eleventh aspect, if ending of channeloccupancy of the first secondary carrier is limited to a subframeboundary, the determining a special subframe in the non-contiguoussecondary carrier according to the obtained first carrier configurationinformation includes: determining the channel occupancy end time pointor the channel listening start time point of the first secondary carrieraccording to the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration, thechannel listening duration, the channel occupancy start reference timepoint and/or the channel listening start reference time point, andsubframe boundary information included in the first carrierconfiguration information, using the M symbols after the determinedchannel occupancy end time point or the determined channel listeningstart time point as the gap symbols, and using the subframe thatincludes all or some symbols of the M symbols as the special subframe.

With reference to the eleventh aspect, or the first or the secondpossible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, in a thirdpossible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, the using allsymbols except the gap symbols in the special subframe as symbols thatcan be occupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH includes: if it is determinedthat the first carrier configuration information carries symbol locationindication information used to indicate a PDSCH start symbol location,using, according to the PDSCH start symbol location indicated in thesymbol location indication information, each non-gap symbol after thePDSCH start symbol location in the special subframe as a symbol that canbe occupied by the PDSCH; or reading a PCFICH from a first symbol of thespecial subframe, determining, according to the PCFICH, the symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH, and using all symbols except the gapsymbols and the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH in the specialsubframe as the symbols that can be occupied by the PDSCH; or reading aPCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe, determining,according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH,and using all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

With reference to any one of the eleventh aspect, or the first to thethird possible implementation manners of the eleventh aspect, in afourth possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, the methodfurther includes: for any gap symbol, performing energy detection on thegap symbol, and when determining that detected energy is higher than aspecified energy threshold, stopping receiving or decoding the specialsubframe that includes all or some symbols of the gap symbols; and/ormonitoring whether a carrier release message for the first secondarycarrier is received from a network-side device, and if yes, stopping adata receiving or decoding operation performed on the first secondarycarrier.

With reference to any one of the eleventh aspect, or the first to thefourth possible implementation manners of the eleventh aspect, in afifth possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, the firstcarrier configuration information is sent to the terminal by thenetwork-side device.

With reference to the fifth possible implementation manner of theeleventh aspect, in a sixth possible implementation manner of theeleventh aspect, the first carrier configuration information is sent tothe terminal by the network-side device by using any one or more typesof the following signaling: an RRC message, a MAC layer PDU message, orphysical layer signaling.

With reference to the fifth or the sixth possible implementation mannerof the eleventh aspect, in a seventh possible implementation manner ofthe eleventh aspect, the channel occupancy start reference time pointand/or the channel listening start reference time point in the firstcarrier configuration information are/is transmitted to the terminal bythe network-side device at any time point after the first secondarycarrier begins to occupy the channel; and the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration and the channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier in the first carrier configuration information aretransmitted to the terminal when the network-side device configures thefirst secondary carrier for the terminal.

With reference to any one of the eleventh aspect, or the first to theseventh possible implementation manners of the eleventh aspect, in aneighth possible implementation manner of the eleventh aspect, the methodfurther includes: receiving second carrier configuration informationdelivered for the first secondary carrier by the network-side device,where the second carrier configuration information includes any one ormore types of the following information: system broadcast information ofthe first secondary carrier, where the system broadcast information canindicate that the first secondary carrier includes a common channel,where the common channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, anSSS, or a reference signal; first indication information, where thefirst indication information is used to indicate that the firstsecondary carrier does not include a common channel; or secondindication information, where the second indication information is usedto indicate that a common channel used in the first secondary carrier isa common channel in an extended format; and determining, according tothe second carrier configuration information, whether the firstsecondary carrier includes the common channel, and when a determiningresult is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding, from the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or determining,according to the second carrier configuration information, whether thecommon channel in the extended format is used in the first secondarycarrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel in the extended format; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

With reference to the eighth possible implementation manner of theeleventh aspect, in a ninth possible implementation manner of theeleventh aspect, the determining, according to the second carrierconfiguration information, whether the first secondary carrier includesthe common channel, includes: if it is determined that the secondcarrier configuration information includes the first indicationinformation, or it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation does not include the system broadcast information,determining that the first secondary carrier does not include the commonchannel; or if it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation does not include the first indication information, or it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe system broadcast information, determining that the first secondarycarrier includes the common channel.

With reference to the eighth or the ninth possible implementation mannerof the eleventh aspect, in a tenth possible implementation manner of theeleventh aspect, the determining, according to the second carrierconfiguration information, whether the common channel in the extendedformat is used in the first secondary carrier, includes: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe second indication information, determining that the common channelin the extended format is used in the first secondary carrier; or if itis determined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the second indication information, determining that a commonchannel in a non-extended format is used in the first secondary carrier.

According to a twelfth aspect, a subframe processing method is provided.The method includes: receiving, by a terminal, first carrierconfiguration information delivered for a first carrier by anetwork-side device, where the first carrier configuration informationincludes any one or more types of the following information: systembroadcast information of the first carrier, where the system broadcastinformation can indicate that the first carrier includes a commonchannel, where the common channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, aPSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; first indication information, wherethe first indication information is used to indicate that the firstcarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first carrier is a common channel inan extended format. The method also includes determining, according tothe first carrier configuration information, whether the first carrierincludes the common channel, and when a determining result is yes, whenreceiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the firstcarrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodinga PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermining, according to the first carrier configuration information,whether the common channel in the extended format is used in the firstcarrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channelin the extended format.

With reference to the twelfth aspect, in a first possible implementationmanner of the twelfth aspect, the determining, according to the firstcarrier configuration information, whether the first carrier includesthe common channel, includes: if it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information includes the first indication information, orit is determined that the first carrier configuration information doesnot include the system broadcast information, determining that the firstcarrier does not include the common channel; or if it is determined thatthe first carrier configuration information does not include the firstindication information, or it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information includes the system broadcast information,determining that the first carrier includes the common channel.

With reference to the twelfth aspect or the first possibleimplementation manner of the twelfth aspect, in a second possibleimplementation manner of the twelfth aspect, the determining, accordingto the first carrier configuration information, whether the commonchannel in the extended format is used in the first carrier, includes:if it is determined that the first carrier configuration informationincludes the second indication information, determining that the commonchannel in the extended format is used in the first carrier; or if it isdetermined that the first carrier configuration information does notinclude the second indication information, determining that a commonchannel in a non-extended format is used in the first carrier.

In the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention,for any non-contiguous secondary carrier, a terminal can determine aspecial subframe in the non-contiguous secondary carrier according to amaximum continuous channel occupancy duration and a channel listeningduration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, and a channeloccupancy start reference time point and/or a channel listening startreference time point of the non-contiguous secondary carrier that areobtained, where the special subframe includes all or some of gap symbolsoccupied by the channel listening duration, and for any specialsubframe, use all symbols except the gap symbols in the special subframeas symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, andcorrespondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thespecial subframe according to the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currently existing problem thatresource utilization is low because a gap symbol caused by a CCA cannotbe excluded from an entire subframe is resolved, and channel utilizationis improved if a channel is discontinuously occupied.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentinvention more clearly, the following briefly describes the accompanyingdrawings required for describing the embodiments. Apparently, theaccompanying drawings in the following description show merely someembodiments of the present invention, and a person of ordinary skill inthe art may still derive other drawings from these accompanying drawingswithout creative efforts.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic structural diagram of the network-side deviceaccording to Embodiment 1 of the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic structural diagram of the network-side deviceaccording to Embodiment 2 of the present invention;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic structural diagram of the terminal according toEmbodiment 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic structural diagram of locations of the gapsymbol and the special subframe according to Embodiment 3 of the presentinvention;

FIG. 5 shows a schematic structural diagram of the terminal according toEmbodiment 4 of the present invention;

FIG. 6 shows a schematic structural diagram of the network-side deviceaccording to Embodiment 5 of the present invention;

FIG. 7 shows a schematic structural diagram of the network-side deviceaccording to Embodiment 6 of the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows a schematic structural diagram of the terminal according toEmbodiment 7 of the present invention;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic structural diagram of the terminal according toEmbodiment 8 of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows a schematic flowchart of the subframe processing methodaccording to Embodiment 9 of the present invention; and

FIG. 11 shows a schematic flowchart of the subframe processing methodaccording to Embodiment 11 of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS

To make the objectives, technical solutions, and advantages of thepresent invention clearer, the following further describes the presentinvention in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.Apparently, the described embodiments are merely a part rather than allof the embodiments of the present invention. All other embodimentsobtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art based on theembodiments of the present invention without creative efforts shall fallwithin the protection scope of the present invention.

Embodiment 1

Embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a network-side device,and the network-side device may be a device such as a base station,which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic structuraldiagram of the network-side device in Embodiment 1 of the presentinvention. The network-side device may include an informationdetermining module 11 and an information sending module 12.

The information determining module 11 may be configured to determinefirst carrier configuration information of a first secondary carrier ofa terminal, where the first secondary carrier is a non-contiguouscarrier, and the first carrier configuration information includes amaximum continuous channel occupancy duration and a channel listeningduration of the first secondary carrier, and further includes a channeloccupancy start reference time point of the first secondary carrierand/or a channel listening start reference time point of the firstsecondary carrier.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, the firstsecondary carrier may generally refer to any non-contiguous secondarycarrier in at least one non-contiguous secondary carrier configured forthe terminal by the network-side device such as the base station. Inaddition, the first secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensedspectrum, an asymmetric carrier, or a single downlink carrier, or thelike. Details are not described in this embodiment of the presentinvention.

Further, when the network-side device such as the base station sends anon-contiguous secondary carrier, generally, a maximum continuouschannel occupancy duration may not be greater than a specified firstduration threshold (such as 13 ms). Therefore, the determined maximumcontinuous channel occupancy duration of the first secondary carrier mayalso not be greater than any numeric value of the specified firstduration threshold. In addition, to match a radio frame structure of anLTE system, the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration of thefirst secondary carrier may be generally a non-zero integer multiple ofa duration (1 ms) occupied by a subframe, for example, a duration (10ms) occupied by a radio frame; or may be a non-zero integer multiple ofa duration occupied by a symbol in a subframe, namely, an OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) symbol, or the like, whichis not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Further, it should be noted that, when the network-side device such asthe base station sends a non-contiguous secondary carrier, generally, achannel listening duration required for performing channel listeningevery time may not be less than a specified second threshold (such as 20s). Therefore, in the solution of the embodiment of the presentinvention, the determined channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier generally may also not be less than the specifiedsecond duration threshold (such as 20 s). Certainly, it should be notedthat, generally, the channel listening duration of the first secondarycarrier is also not greater than a specified third duration threshold,such as a duration occupied by a subframe, which is not limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Further, it should be noted that, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, the determined channel occupancy start reference time pointof the first secondary carrier may generally refer to a channeloccupancy start point when the first secondary carrier occupies achannel at any time, and the determined channel listening startreference time point of the first secondary carrier may generally referto a channel listening start time point at any time of channel listeningafter the first secondary carriers begins to occupy the channel, whichis not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

In addition, it should be noted that, because a time when the terminalbegins to receive the first secondary carrier is not fixed, that is, theterminal may begin to receive the first secondary carrier at a timepoint when the first secondary carrier begins to occupy a channel, ormay begin to receive the first secondary carrier only after a time pointwhen the first secondary carrier occupies a channel at an N^(th) time (Nis any natural number), preferably, the channel occupancy startreference time point in the first carrier configuration information maybe a channel occupancy start time point corresponding to a time pointwhen the terminal begins to receive the first secondary carrier or achannel occupancy start time point corresponding to a certain channeloccupancy time after the time point, and the channel listening startreference time point in the first carrier configuration information maybe a channel listening start time point corresponding to a time pointwhen the terminal begins to receive the first secondary carrier or achannel listening start time point corresponding to a certain channellistening time after the time point.

In addition, it should be noted that, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, the first carrier configuration information may include oneor more channel occupancy start reference time points, and may includeone or more channel listening start reference time points, which is notlimited in this embodiment of the present invention.

The information sending module 12 may be configured to send the firstcarrier configuration information determined by the informationdetermining module 11 to the terminal, so that the terminal performs thefollowing operations according to the received first carrierconfiguration information: determining a special subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, where the special subframe includes all or some ofgap symbols, and the gap symbols are symbols that are completely orpartly occupied by the channel listening duration; and using all symbolsexcept the gap symbols in the special subframe as symbols that can beoccupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according tothe determined symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH.

Specifically, the information sending module 12 may be specificallyconfigured to send the first carrier configuration informationdetermined by the information determining module 11 to the terminal byusing any one or more types of the following signaling: an RRC message,a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layer signaling, or the like.

Further, it should be noted that, the information sending module 12 maybe specifically configured to send any two pieces of informationincluded in the first carrier configuration information to the terminalby using same or different messages. For example, the RRC message may beused to transmit the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration orthe channel listening duration of the first secondary carrier to theterminal, and the MAC layer PDU message or the physical layer signalingmay be used to transmit the channel occupancy start reference time pointor the channel listening start reference time point or the like of thefirst secondary carrier to the terminal.

In addition, it should be noted that, the information sending module 12may transmit any two pieces of information included in the first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal at a same time point ordifferent time points. For example, the channel occupancy start timepoint and/or the channel listening start time point in the first carrierconfiguration information may be transmitted to the terminal at any timepoint after the first secondary carrier begins to occupy the channel;and the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and the channellistening duration of the first secondary carrier in the first carrierconfiguration information may be transmitted to the terminal when thefirst secondary carrier is configured for the terminal.

Further, the network-side device may further include a symboldesignation module 13.

The symbol designation module 13 may be configured to designate a PDSCHstart symbol location for the first secondary carrier before thedetermined first carrier configuration information is sent to theterminal if it is determined that the first secondary carrier is across-scheduled carrier. Specifically, for any carrier, when a PDSCH ofthe carrier is scheduled by a PDCCH of another carrier, the schedulingis referred to as cross-carrier scheduling, and correspondingly, thecarrier may be referred to as a cross-scheduled carrier. For example,for a primary carrier F1 and a secondary carrier F2, if a PDSCH of thesecondary carrier F2 is configured to be scheduled by a PDCCH of theprimary carrier F1, the secondary carrier F2 is a correspondingcross-scheduled carrier. In this case, the terminal does not need toread a PDCCH in the secondary carrier F2. In addition, the network-sidedevice may directly configure a PDSCH start symbol location of eachsubframe in the secondary carrier F2, so that the terminal may directlyread the corresponding PDSCH according to the PDSCH start symbollocation and PDCCH scheduling information of the primary carrier F1.That is, the PDSCH start symbol location may be used to designate astart location of PDSCH symbols in each subframe in the first secondarycarrier used as a cross-scheduled carrier. If the PDSCH start symbollocation is 0, it may indicate that all symbols in any subframe in thefirst secondary carrier used as the cross-scheduled carrier may be usedfor PDSCH transmission.

Correspondingly, the information sending module 12 may be specificallyconfigured to send, to the terminal when it is determined that the firstsecondary carrier is a cross-scheduled carrier, the first carrierconfiguration information carrying symbol location indicationinformation used to indicate the PDSCH start symbol location, so thatafter the terminal determines the special subframe in the firstsecondary carrier according to the first carrier configurationinformation, the terminal uses, according to the PDSCH start symbollocation indicated in the symbol location indication information, eachnon-gap symbol after the PDSCH start symbol location in the specialsubframe as a symbol that can be occupied by the PDSCH.

Further, the network-side device may further include a channelmonitoring module 14.

The channel monitoring module 14 may be configured to monitor, after thefirst carrier configuration information of the first secondary carrieris determined, whether a channel corresponding to the first secondarycarrier is occupied by another network-side device in a time periodcorresponding to the channel listening duration; and specifically, maydetermine, by monitoring whether signal energy in the time periodcorresponding to the channel listening duration is greater than aspecified energy threshold, whether the channel corresponding to thefirst secondary carrier is occupied by the another network-side device;for example, if it is detected that signal energy in the time periodcorresponding to the channel listening duration is greater than thespecified energy threshold, may determine that the channel correspondingto the first secondary carrier is occupied by the another network-sidedevice, which is not further described in this embodiment of the presentinvention.

Correspondingly, the information sending module 12 may be furtherconfigured to send a carrier release message to the terminal when amonitoring result of the channel monitoring module 14 is yes (that is,when the channel monitoring module 14 detects that the channelcorresponding to the first secondary carrier is occupied by the anothernetwork-side device in the time period corresponding to the channellistening duration), so that the terminal stops, according to thecarrier release message, a data receiving or decoding operationperformed on the first secondary carrier.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the informationdetermining module 11 may be further configured to determine secondcarrier configuration information of the first secondary carrier, wherethe second carrier configuration information may include any one or moretypes of the following information: system broadcast information of thefirst secondary carrier, where the system broadcast information canindicate that the first secondary carrier includes a common channel,where the common channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, anSSS, or a reference signal (such as a CRS (Common Reference Signal,common pilot), or a CSI-RS (Channel State Information Reference Signal);first indication information, where the first indication information isused to indicate that the first secondary carrier does not include acommon channel; or second indication information, where the secondindication information is used to indicate that a common channel used inthe first secondary carrier is a common channel in an extended format,where the common channel in the extended format indicates that a symbolor a frequency location in which the common channel is located isdifferent from a symbol or a frequency location in which a commonchannel in a non-extended format in the prior art is located.Specifically, the common channel in the extended format may occupy fewerradio resources, so that the first secondary carrier has more symbollocations that may be used for data transmission. Specifically, forexample, in the prior art, a PSS/SSS in a non-extended format occupieslast two symbols of timeslots 0 and 10, but a PSS/SSS in an extendedformat may occupy only a first symbol of the timeslot 0. In this way,three more symbols are available for data transmission in the twotimeslots 0 and 10.

Correspondingly, the information sending module 12 may be furtherconfigured to send the second carrier configuration informationdetermined by the information determining module 11 to the terminal, sothat the terminal performs the following operation according to thereceived second carrier configuration information: determining whetherthe first secondary carrier includes the common channel, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding,from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, skippingexcluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermining whether the common channel in the extended format is used inthe first secondary carrier, and when a determining result is yes, whenreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in thefirst secondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format; or when a determiningresult is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, fromthe symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

Embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a network-side device. Inthe technical solution of Embodiment 1 of the present invention, for anynon-contiguous secondary carrier configured for a terminal, thenetwork-side device may determine carrier configuration information suchas a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and a channellistening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, and achannel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channel listeningstart reference time point of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, andsend the determined carrier configuration information to the terminal,so that the terminal determines a special subframe in the non-contiguoussecondary carrier according to the received carrier configurationinformation, and uses all symbols except gap symbols in the specialsubframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, andcorrespondingly receives or decodes the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thespecial subframe according to the determined symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currentlyexisting problem that resource utilization is low because a gap symbolcaused by a CCA cannot be excluded from an entire subframe by a terminalis resolved, and channel utilization is improved if a channel isdiscontinuously occupied.

In addition, for any carrier configured for a terminal, the network-sidedevice may transmit, to the terminal, indication information aboutwhether a common channel is included in the carrier, so that when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to the received indication information about whether thecommon channel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. Inthis way, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increasedbecause a terminal still excludes, according to a specific locationoccupied by a common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel ina secondary carrier in which no corresponding common channel isconfigured, is resolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility ofexcluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel,an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency ofreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal isachieved.

Embodiment 2

Embodiment 2 of the present invention provides a network-side device,where the network-side device may be a device such as a base station,which is not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.Specifically, as shown in FIG. 2, FIG. 2 is a schematic structuraldiagram of the network-side device in Embodiment 2 of the presentinvention. The network-side device may include an informationdetermining module 21 and an information sending module 22.

The information determining module 21 may be configured to determinefirst carrier configuration information of a first carrier of aterminal, where the first carrier configuration information includes anyone or more types of the following information: system broadcastinformation of the first carrier, where the system broadcast informationcan indicate that the first carrier includes a common channel, where thecommon channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first carrier doesnot include a common channel; or second indication information, wherethe second indication information is used to indicate that a commonchannel used in the first carrier is a common channel in an extendedformat.

The information sending module 22 may be configured to send the firstcarrier configuration information determined by the informationdetermining module 21 to the terminal, so that the terminal performs thefollowing operation according to the received first carrierconfiguration information: determining whether the first carrierincludes the common channel, and when a determining result is yes, whenreceiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the firstcarrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodinga PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermining whether the common channel in the extended format is used inthe first carrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channelin the extended format.

Specifically, the information determining module 21 may determine thefirst carrier configuration information of the first carrier when thenetwork-side device configures the corresponding first carrier for theterminal, or may determine the first carrier configuration informationof the first carrier after the network-side device configures thecorresponding first carrier for the terminal, which is not limited inthis embodiment of the present invention. Further, the first carrier maybe any non-contiguous carrier or any contiguous carrier configured bythe network-side device for the terminal, which is also not limited inthis embodiment of the present invention.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 2 of the presentinvention, for any carrier configured for a terminal, the network-sidedevice may transmit, to the terminal, indication information aboutwhether a common channel is included in the carrier, so that when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to the received indication information about whether thecommon channel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. Inthis way, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increasedbecause a terminal still excludes, according to a specific locationoccupied by a common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel ina secondary carrier in which no corresponding common channel isconfigured, is resolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility ofexcluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel,an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency ofreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal isachieved.

Embodiment 3

Embodiment 3 of the present invention provides a terminal, where theterminal may be a device such as a mobile phone that can performcommunication and interaction with a network-side device, which is notlimited in this embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, asshown in FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of theterminal in Embodiment 3 of the present invention. The terminal mayspecifically include an information obtaining module 31, a subframedetermining module 32, and a subframe processing module 33.

The information obtaining module 31 may be configured to obtain firstcarrier configuration information of a first secondary carrier, wherethe first secondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and the firstcarrier configuration information includes a maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration and a channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancy startreference time point and/or a channel listening start reference timepoint of the first secondary carrier.

The subframe determining module 32 may be configured to determine aspecial subframe in the first secondary carrier according to the firstcarrier configuration information obtained by the information obtainingmodule 31, where the special subframe includes all or some of gapsymbols, and the gap symbols are symbols that are completely or partlyoccupied by the channel listening duration.

The subframe processing module 33 may be configured to use all symbolsexcept the gap symbols in the special subframe determined by thesubframe determining module 32 as symbols that can be occupied by aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according to the determinedsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

Specifically, the first carrier configuration information may begenerally configured and sent by a network-side device such as a basestation to the terminal. Certainly, it should be noted that, the firstcarrier configuration information may also be predefined according to aspecified rule and stored in the terminal, which is not limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Further, when the first carrier configuration information is sent to theterminal by the network-side device, the first carrier configurationinformation may be transmitted to the terminal by the network-sidedevice by using any one or more types of the following signaling: an RRCmessage, a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layer signaling, or thelike. In addition, any two pieces of information included in the firstcarrier configuration information may be transmitted to the terminal bythe network-side device by using same or different messages. Inaddition, any two pieces of information included in the first carrierconfiguration information may be transmitted to the terminal by thenetwork-side device at a same time point or different time points. Forexample, the channel occupancy start reference time point and/or thechannel listening start reference time point in the first carrierconfiguration information may be transmitted to the terminal by thenetwork-side device at any time point after the first secondary carrierbegins to occupy the channel; and the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration and the channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier in the first carrier configuration information may betransmitted to the terminal when the network-side device configures thefirst secondary carrier for the terminal, which is not limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Further, the subframe determining module 32 may be specificallyconfigured to determine a channel occupancy end time point or a channellistening start time point of the first secondary carrier according tothe maximum continuous channel occupancy duration, the channel listeningduration, and the channel occupancy start reference time point and/orthe channel listening start reference time point included in the firstcarrier configuration information, use M symbols after the determinedchannel occupancy end time point or the determined channel listeningstart time point as the gap symbols, and use the subframe that includesall or some symbols of the M symbols as the special subframe, where theM symbols are determined according to the channel listening duration,and M is a positive integer that is greater than or equal to 1.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, ending of channeloccupancy of the first secondary carrier may be limited to a subframeboundary, or ending is not limited to a subframe boundary, and whenending of channel occupancy of the first secondary carrier is limited tothe subframe boundary, corresponding subframe boundary information suchas subframe boundary information of a primary carrier or subframeboundary information of a second secondary carrier (the second secondarycarrier is a contiguous carrier) of the terminal needs to be obtained.Therefore, correspondingly, when ending of channel occupancy of thefirst secondary carrier is limited to the subframe boundary, theterminal (which may be specifically the subframe determining module 32)further needs to perform subframe boundary detection to determinesubframe boundary information such as subframe boundary information ofthe primary carrier or subframe boundary information of the secondsecondary carrier of the terminal.

Correspondingly, in this case, the subframe determining module 32 may bespecifically configured to determine the channel occupancy end timepoint or the channel listening start time point of the first secondarycarrier according to the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration,the channel listening duration, the channel occupancy start referencetime point and/or the channel listening start reference time point, andsubframe boundary information included in the first carrierconfiguration information, use the M symbols after the determinedchannel occupancy end time point or the determined channel listeningstart time point as the gap symbols, and use the subframe that includesall or some symbols of the M symbols as the special subframe.

Further, for example, ending of channel occupancy of the first secondarycarrier is not limited to the subframe boundary, the first carrierconfiguration information includes the channel occupancy start referencetime point of the first secondary carrier, and the channel occupancystart reference time point refers to a channel occupancy start timepoint when the first secondary carrier occupies the channel at a firsttime. The subframe determining module 32 may determine, according to thefollowing formula, a channel occupancy end time point t_(N) (or achannel listening start time point at an N^(th) time of channellistening) t_(N) when the first secondary carrier occupies the channelat an N^(th) time:

t_(N)=(t₁₀+T₁)+(N−1)(CCA+T₁), where t₁₀ indicates the channel occupancystart reference time point, T₁ indicates the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration of the first secondary carrier, the CCA indicates thechannel listening duration, and N is a positive integer that is greaterthan or equal to 1.

Further, for example, ending of channel occupancy of the first secondarycarrier is not limited to the subframe boundary, the first carrierconfiguration information includes the channel listening start referencetime point of the first secondary carrier, and the channel listeningstart reference time point refers to a channel listening start timepoint at a first time of channel listening after the first secondarycarrier begins to occupy the channel. The subframe determining module 32may determine, according to the following formula, a channel occupancyend time point t_(N) (or a channel listening start time point at anN^(th) time of channel listening) when the first secondary carrieroccupies the channel at an N^(th) time:

t_(N)=t₂₀+(N−1)(CCA+T₁), where t₂₀ indicates the channel listening startreference time point, T₁ indicates the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration of the first secondary carrier, and the CCA indicatesthe channel listening duration of the first secondary carrier.

Correspondingly, after the channel occupancy end time point when thefirst secondary carrier occupies the channel at the N^(th) time or thechannel listening start time point at the N^(th) time of channellistening is determined, the corresponding gap symbols and thecorresponding special subframe are determined according to the channellistening duration of the first secondary carrier.

It should be noted that, because when ending of channel occupancy of thefirst secondary carrier is not limited to the subframe boundary, thedetermined channel occupancy end time point when the first secondarycarrier occupies the channel at the N^(th) time or the channel listeningstart time point at the N^(th) time of channel listening (namely, astart time point of a CCA) is not limited to a start location of acorresponding subframe, locations of the gap symbols are alsodynamically changed, and a gap symbol may occur in any location in thesubframe, which is not further described in this embodiment of thepresent invention.

Further, for example, ending of channel occupancy of the first secondarycarrier is limited to the subframe boundary, the first carrierconfiguration information includes the channel occupancy start referencetime point of the first secondary carrier, and the channel occupancystart reference time point refers to a channel occupancy start timepoint when the first secondary carrier occupies the channel at a firsttime. The subframe determining module 32 may determine, according to thefollowing manner, a channel occupancy end time point (or a channellistening start time point at an N^(th) time of channel listening) whenthe first secondary carrier occupies the channel at an N^(th) time: whena value of N is 1, determining, according to the subframe boundaryinformation included in the first carrier configuration information,whether a time point corresponding to a sum of the maximum continuouschannel occupancy duration of the first secondary carrier and thechannel occupancy start reference time point of the first secondarycarrier is located at the subframe boundary, and if yes, using the timepoint corresponding to the sum of the maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration of the first secondary carrier and the channeloccupancy start reference time point of the first secondary carrier, asan end time point when the first secondary carrier occupies the channelat the first time, or if no, using a subframe start time point of asubframe in which the time point corresponding to the sum of the maximumcontinuous channel occupancy duration of the first secondary carrier andthe channel occupancy start reference time point of the first secondarycarrier is located, as an end time point when the first secondarycarrier occupies the channel at the first time; and when a value of N isa positive integer that is greater than 1, using a determined end timepoint when the first secondary carrier occupies the channel at an(N−1)^(th) time, as an (N−1)^(th) end time point, using a sum of thechannel listening duration and the maximum continuous channel occupancyduration of the first secondary carrier as a first period, anddetermining, according to the subframe boundary information included inthe first carrier configuration information, whether a time pointcorresponding to a sum of the first period and the (N−1)^(th) end timepoint is located at the subframe boundary, and if yes, using the timepoint corresponding to the sum of the first period and the (N−1)^(th)end time point, as an end time point when the first secondary carrieroccupies the channel at the N^(th) time, or if no, using a subframestart time point of a subframe in which the time point corresponding tothe sum of the first period and the (N−1)^(th) end time point islocated, as an end time point when the first secondary carrier occupiesthe channel at the N^(th) time.

Further, for example, ending of channel occupancy of the first secondarycarrier is limited to the subframe boundary, the first carrierconfiguration information includes the channel listening start referencetime point of the first secondary carrier, and the channel listeningstart reference time point refers to a channel listening start timepoint at a first time of channel listening after the first secondarycarrier begins to occupy the channel. The subframe determining module 32may determine, according to the following manner, a channel occupancyend time point (or a channel listening start time point at an N^(th)time of channel listening) when the first secondary carrier occupies thechannel at an N^(th) time: when a value of N is 1, directly using thechannel listening start reference time point of the first secondarycarrier as an end time point when the first secondary carrier occupiesthe channel at a first time; when a value of N is a positive integerthat is greater than 1, using a determined end time point when the firstsecondary carrier occupies the channel at an (N−1)^(th) time, as an(N−1)^(th) end time point, using a sum of the channel listening durationand the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration of the firstsecondary carrier as a first period, determining, according to thesubframe boundary information included in the first carrierconfiguration information, whether a time point corresponding to a sumof the first period and the (N−1)^(th) end time point is located at thesubframe boundary, and if yes, using the time point corresponding to thesum of the first period and the (N−1)^(th) end time point, as an endtime point when the first secondary carrier occupies the channel at theN^(th) time, or if no, using a subframe start time point of a subframein which the time point corresponding to the sum of the first period andthe (N−1)^(th) end time point is located, as an end time point when thefirst secondary carrier occupies the channel at the N^(th) time.

Correspondingly, after the channel occupancy end time point when thefirst secondary carrier occupies the channel at the N^(th) time or thechannel listening start time point at the N^(th) time of channellistening is determined, the corresponding gap symbols and thecorresponding special subframe are determined according to the channellistening duration of the first secondary carrier.

It should be noted that, because when ending of channel occupancy of thefirst secondary carrier is limited to the subframe boundary, thedetermined channel occupancy end time point when the first secondarycarrier occupies the channel at the N^(th) time or the channel listeningstart time point at the N^(th) time of channel listening (namely, astart time point of a CCA) is limited to a start location of acorresponding subframe, a start location of the gap symbols is also astart location of the corresponding subframe, which is not furtherdescribed in this embodiment of the present invention.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the present invention,when the channel occupancy start time point of the first secondarycarrier at the first time (namely, the first time) is located in alocation of a certain symbol of a subframe 0 of a specified radio framein the primary carrier or another contiguous secondary carrier of theterminal, the first secondary carrier may actually begin to use acorresponding channel from a location of a subframe start time point ofa subframe 1 of the corresponding specified radio frame in the primarycarrier or another contiguous secondary carrier of the terminal, so asto achieve an effect of aligning corresponding subframe boundaries,which is not further described in this embodiment of the presentinvention.

Specifically, the following describes in brief, according to specificinstances, the process of determining the channel occupancy end timepoint (or the channel listening start time point at the N^(th) time ofchannel listening) when the first secondary carrier occupies the channelat the N^(th) time, and the corresponding gap symbols, and the specialsubframe in this embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that at least two operating carrierssuch as a first carrier and a second carrier are configured for theterminal, where the first carrier is a non-contiguous secondary carrierdeployed in an unlicensed spectrum, a maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration of the first carrier is 10 ms (namely, a durationoccupied by a radio frame), a channel listening duration is 20 s(namely, less than one symbol), a channel occupancy start reference timepoint of the first carrier refers to a channel occupancy start timepoint when the first carrier occupies a channel at a first time, and thefirst carrier begins to occupy the channel from a middle location of afirst subframe (subframe 0) of a radio frame 1 shown in FIG. 4 (that is,the channel occupancy start time point at the first time is a time pointcorresponding to the middle location in the first subframe in the radioframe 1).

If ending of channel occupancy of the first carrier is limited to asubframe boundary, in order that channel occupancy is ended at thesubframe boundary, the first carrier needs to be ended at a subframe endtime point (or a subframe start time point of a subframe 0 of a radioframe 2) of a subframe 9 of the radio frame 1 when occupying the channelat the first time. In this case, the channel occupancy end time point ofthe first carrier at the first time is the subframe end time point ofthe subframe 9 of the radio frame 1 shown in FIG. 4 (or the subframestart time point of the subframe 0 of the radio frame 2).Correspondingly, symbols occupied by the channel listening durationafter the subframe end time point of the subframe 9 of the radio frame 1(or the subframe start time point of the subframe 0 of the radio frame2) are gap symbols, and a subframe having the gap symbols is a specialsubframe. Specifically, in FIG. 4, because the channel listeningduration may merely occupy less than one symbol, the determined gapsymbol is a first symbol of the subframe 0 of the radio frame 2, and thedetermined subframe is the subframe 0 of the radio frame 2. Similarly,according to the foregoing manner, it may be further determined that,the first carrier needs to be ended at a subframe end time point of asubframe 9 of the radio frame 2 (or a subframe start time point of asubframe 0 of a radio frame 3) when occupying the channel at a secondtime, that is, a channel occupancy end time point of the first carrierat the second time is the subframe end time point of the subframe 9 ofthe radio frame 2 (or the subframe start time point of the subframe 0 ofthe radio frame 3) shown in FIG. 4, and it may be further determinedthat a first symbol of the subframe 0 of the radio frame 3 is a gapsymbol, and that the subframe 0 of the radio frame 3 is a specialsubframe, which is not further described in this embodiment of thepresent invention.

That is, in the schematic structural diagram of the carrier shown inFIG. 4, a determined channel occupancy end time point when the firstcarrier occupies the channel at an N^(th) time or a channel listeningstart time point at an N^(th) time of channel listening (namely, a starttime point of a CCA) is limited to a start location of a correspondingsubframe (or an end location of a previous subframe adjacent to thecorresponding subframe). Therefore, a start location of the gap symbolsis generally located in a start location of a corresponding subframe (oran end location of a previous subframe adjacent to the correspondingsubframe), which is not further described in this embodiment of thepresent invention.

Further, it should be noted that, as shown in FIG. 4, when ending ofchannel occupancy of the first carrier is limited to a subframeboundary, an actual continuous channel occupancy duration every timewhen the first carrier occupies the channel may be less than 10 ms. Forexample, for aligning with the subframe boundary of the second carrier,the first carrier may generally actually begin to use the channel from asubframe 1 of the radio frame 1. In addition, in order that channeloccupancy is ended at the subframe boundary, the first carrier needs tobe ended at the subframe 9 of the radio frame 1 when occupying thechannel at the first time, and a CCA is started at the subframe end timepoint of the subframe 9 of the radio frame 1. In this case, although themaximum continuous channel occupancy duration of the first carrier maybe 10 ms, an actual occupancy is merely 9 ms. Certainly, it should benoted that, if the channel occupancy start time point of the firstcarrier at the first time is a subframe start time point of the subframe0 of the radio frame, an actual continuous channel occupancy duration ofthe first carrier may be still 10 ms, which is not further described inthis embodiment of the present invention.

Further, after the gap symbols and the corresponding special subframeare determined, the subframe processing module 33 may be used to performprocessing on the corresponding special subframe.

Specifically, the subframe processing module 33 may be specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation carries symbol location indication information used toindicate a PDSCH start symbol location, use, according to the PDSCHstart symbol location indicated in the symbol location indicationinformation, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCH start symbol locationin the special subframe as a symbol that can be occupied by the PDSCH,where the symbol location indication information is sent to the terminalwhen the network-side device determines that the first secondary carrieris a cross-scheduled carrier; or may be specifically configured to reada PCFICH from a first symbol of the special subframe, determine,according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH,and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDSCH; or may be specifically configured to read aPCFICH from an (M+¹)^(th) symbol of the special subframe, determine,according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH,and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

It should be noted that, if it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information does not carry symbol location indicationinformation used to indicate a PDSCH start symbol location, the subframeprocessing module 33 may be specifically configured to: for any specialsubframe, read a PCFICH from a first symbol of the special subframe orread a PCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe,determine, according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH, and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDSCH.

Further, it should be noted that, when the foregoing manner of reading aPCFICH is used to determine the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and the symbols that can be occupied by the PDSCH, the subframeprocessing module 33 may be specifically configured to: for any specialsubframe, read a PCFICH from the first symbol of the special subframewhen it is determined that the gap symbols in the special subframe arenot located in a start location of the special subframe, and read aPCFICH from the (M+1)^(th) symbol in the special subframe when it isdetermined that the gap symbols in the special subframe are located inthe start location of the special subframe; or may be configured tofirst read a PCFICH from the first symbol in the special subframe, andwhen the reading fails, read a PCFICH from the (M+1)^(th) symbol in thespecial subframe; or may be configured to first read a PCFICH from the(M+1)^(th) symbol in the special subframe, and when the reading fails,read a PCFICH from the first symbol in the special subframe, which isnot limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Further, it should be noted that, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, for any special subframe, when it is determined that allsymbols in the special subframe are gap symbols, that is, the channellistening duration may occupy a duration occupied by the entiresubframe, the subframe processing module 33 may be further configured tostop corresponding receiving or decoding performed on the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the special subframe.

Further, the terminal may further include an information monitoringmodule 34.

The information monitoring module 34 may be configured to: for any gapsymbol, perform energy detection on the gap symbol; and/or configured tomonitor whether a carrier release message for the first secondarycarrier is received from the network-side device.

The subframe processing module 33 may be further configured to: for anygap symbol, when it is determined that energy of the gap symbol detectedby the information monitoring module 34 is higher than a specifiedenergy threshold, stop receiving or decoding the special subframe thatincludes all or some symbols of the gap symbols; this is because for anygap symbol, in a location in which the gap symbol is located, the firstsecondary carrier of the network-side device does not transmit any data;if corresponding energy is detected in the location in which the gapsymbol is located, it indicates that in a CCA period corresponding tothe gap symbol, the channel occupied by the first secondary carrier isoccupied by another network-side device, and therefore, it is alsounnecessary to perform corresponding receiving or decoding on the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH after the gap symbol location any longer; or may befurther configured to: when the information monitoring module 34 detectsthat the carrier release message for the first secondary carrier isreceived from the network-side device, stop a data receiving or decodingoperation performed on the first secondary carrier.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the informationobtaining module 31 may be further configured to receive second carrierconfiguration information delivered for the first secondary carrier bythe network-side device, where the second carrier configurationinformation may include any one or more types of the followinginformation: system broadcast information of the first secondarycarrier, where the system broadcast information can indicate that thefirst secondary carrier includes a common channel, where the commonchannel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first secondarycarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first secondary carrier is a commonchannel in an extended format; and the subframe processing module 33 maybe further configured to: determine, according to the second carrierconfiguration information, whether the first secondary carrier includesthe common channel, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, exclude, from the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodingthe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondarycarrier, skip excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or may be further configured to determine, according to thesecond carrier configuration information, whether the common channel inthe extended format is used in the first secondary carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, exclude, fromthe symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format;or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, skipexcluding, from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format.

That is, for any carrier, when the terminal receives or decodes a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the carrier, the terminal may flexiblyselect to exclude or skip excluding, according to received indicationinformation about whether a common channel is included, symbols occupiedby the common channel. In this way, a currently existing problem that athroughput is increased because a terminal still excludes, according toa specific location occupied by a common channel, symbols occupied bythe common channel in a secondary carrier in which no correspondingcommon channel is configured, is resolved, and on a basis of improvingflexibility of excluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by thecommon channel, an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improvingefficiency of receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by theterminal is achieved.

Specifically, the subframe processing module 33 may be specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation includes the first indication information, or it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the system broadcast information, determine that the firstsecondary carrier does not include the common channel; or may bespecifically configured to: if it is determined that the second carrierconfiguration information does not include the first indicationinformation, or it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation includes the system broadcast information, determine thatthe first secondary carrier includes the common channel.

Similarly, the subframe processing module 33 may be specifically furtherconfigured to: if it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation includes the second indication information, determine thatthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first secondarycarrier; or may be specifically further configured to: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the second indication information, determine that a commonchannel in a non-extended format is used in the first secondary carrier.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 3 of the presentinvention, for any non-contiguous secondary carrier, the terminal candetermine a special subframe in the non-contiguous secondary carrieraccording to a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and achannel listening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, anda channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the non-contiguous secondarycarrier that are obtained, where the special subframe includes all orsome of gap symbols occupied by the channel listening duration, and forany special subframe, use all symbols except the gap symbols in thespecial subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the special subframe according to the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currently existing problemthat resource utilization is low because a gap symbol caused by a CCAcannot be excluded from an entire subframe is resolved, and channelutilization is improved if a channel is discontinuously occupied.

In addition, for any carrier, when the terminal receives or decodes aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the carrier, the terminal mayflexibly select to exclude or skip excluding, according to receivedindication information about whether a common channel is included,symbols occupied by the common channel. In this way, a currentlyexisting problem that a throughput is increased because a terminal stillexcludes, according to a specific location occupied by a common channel,symbols occupied by the common channel in a secondary carrier in whichno corresponding common channel is configured, is resolved, and on abasis of improving flexibility of excluding, by the terminal, thesymbols occupied by the common channel, an effect of reducing athroughput loss and improving efficiency of receiving or decoding thePDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal is achieved.

Embodiment 4

Embodiment 4 of the present invention provides a terminal, where theterminal may be a device such as a mobile phone that can performcommunication and interaction with a network-side device, which is notlimited in this embodiment of the present invention. Specifically, asshown in FIG. 5, FIG. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of theterminal in Embodiment 4 of the present invention. The terminal mayspecifically include an information receiving module 51 and a subframeprocessing module 52.

The information receiving module 51 may be configured to receive firstcarrier configuration information delivered for a first carrier by anetwork-side device, where the first carrier configuration informationincludes any one or more types of the following information: systembroadcast information of the first carrier, where the system broadcastinformation can indicate that the first carrier includes a commonchannel, where the common channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, aPSS, an SSS, or a reference signal; first indication information, wherethe first indication information is used to indicate that the firstcarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first carrier is a common channel inan extended format.

The subframe processing module 52 may be configured to determine,according to the first carrier configuration information, whether thefirst carrier includes the common channel, and when a determining resultis yes, when receiving or decoding a physical downlink control channelPDCCH and/or a physical downlink shared channel PDSCH in a subframe inthe first carrier, exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodinga PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermine, according to the first carrier configuration information,whether the common channel in the extended format is used in the firstcarrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extendedformat; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decoding aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skip excluding,from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

Specifically, the subframe processing module 52 may be specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation includes the first indication information, or it isdetermined that the first carrier configuration information does notinclude the system broadcast information, determine that the firstcarrier does not include the common channel; or may be specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation does not include the first indication information, or it isdetermined that the first carrier configuration information includes thesystem broadcast information, determine that the first carrier includesthe common channel.

Similarly, the subframe processing module 52 may be specifically furtherconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation includes the second indication information, determine thatthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first carrier;or may be specifically further configured to: if it is determined thatthe first carrier configuration information does not include the secondindication information, determine that a common channel in anon-extended format is used in the first carrier.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 4 of the presentinvention, for any carrier configured for the terminal, when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to received indication information about whether a commonchannel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. In thisway, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increased becausea terminal still excludes, according to a specific location occupied bya common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel in a secondarycarrier in which no corresponding common channel is configured, isresolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility of excluding, by theterminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel, an effect ofreducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency of receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal is achieved.

Embodiment 5

Embodiment 5 of the present invention provides a network-side device,where the network-side device is a network-side entity device based on asame inventive conception as the network-side device in Embodiment 1 ofthe present invention. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, FIG. 6 is aschematic structural diagram of the network-side device in Embodiment 5of the present invention. The network-side device may include componentssuch as a processor 61 and a transmitter 62.

The processor 61 may be configured to determine first carrierconfiguration information of a first secondary carrier of a terminal,where the first secondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and thefirst carrier configuration information includes a maximum continuouschannel occupancy duration and a channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancy startreference time point of the first secondary carrier and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the first secondary carrier.

The transmitter 62 may be configured to send the first carrierconfiguration information determined by the processor 61 to theterminal, so that the terminal performs the following operationsaccording to the received first carrier configuration information:determining a special subframe in the first secondary carrier, where thespecial subframe includes all or some of gap symbols, and the gapsymbols are symbols that are completely or partly occupied by thechannel listening duration; and using all symbols except the gap symbolsin the special subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receiving or decoding the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according to the determinedsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

Specifically, the transmitter 62 may be specifically configured to sendthe first carrier configuration information determined by the processor61 to the terminal by using any one or more types of the followingsignaling: an RRC message, a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layersignaling, or the like. In addition, the transmitter 62 may bespecifically configured to send any two pieces of information includedin the first carrier configuration information to the terminal by usingsame or different messages. In addition, it should be noted that, thetransmitter 62 may transmit any two pieces of information included inthe first carrier configuration information to the terminal at a sametime point or different time points. For example, the transmitter 62 maybe specifically configured to send the channel occupancy start timepoint and/or the channel listening start time point in the first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal at any time point after thefirst secondary carrier begins to occupy the channel; and send themaximum continuous channel occupancy duration and the channel listeningduration of the first secondary carrier in the first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal when the first secondarycarrier is configured for the terminal, which is not limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Further, the processor 61 may be further configured to designate a PDSCHstart symbol location for the first secondary carrier before thedetermined first carrier configuration information is sent to theterminal if it is determined that the first secondary carrier is across-scheduled carrier.

Correspondingly, the transmitter 62 may be specifically configured tosend, to the terminal when it is determined that the first secondarycarrier is a cross-scheduled carrier, the first carrier configurationinformation carrying symbol location indication information used toindicate the PDSCH start symbol location, so that after the terminaldetermines the special subframe in the first secondary carrier accordingto the first carrier configuration information, the terminal uses,according to the PDSCH start symbol location indicated in the symbollocation indication information, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCHstart symbol location in the special subframe as a symbol that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

Further, the network-side device may further include a monitor 63.

The monitor 63 may be configured to monitor, after the first carrierconfiguration information of the first secondary carrier is determined,whether a channel corresponding to the first secondary carrier isoccupied by another network-side device in a time period correspondingto the channel listening duration.

Correspondingly, the transmitter 62 may be further configured to send acarrier release message to the terminal when a monitoring result of themonitor 63 is yes (that is, when it is detected that the channelcorresponding to the first secondary carrier is occupied by the anothernetwork-side device in the time period corresponding to the channellistening duration), so that the terminal stops, according to thecarrier release message, a data receiving or decoding operationperformed on the first secondary carrier.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the processor 61may be further configured to determine second carrier configurationinformation of the first secondary carrier, where the second carrierconfiguration information includes any one or more types of thefollowing information: system broadcast information of the firstsecondary carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first secondary carrier includes a common channel, where thecommon channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first secondarycarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first secondary carrier is a commonchannel in an extended format.

Correspondingly, the transmitter 62 may be further configured to sendthe second carrier configuration information determined by the processor61 to the terminal, so that the terminal performs the followingoperation according to the received second carrier configurationinformation: determining whether the first secondary carrier includesthe common channel, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, skipping excluding, from the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel; or determining whether the common channel in theextended format is used in the first secondary carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/orthe PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding,from the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extendedformat; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodingthe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the first secondarycarrier, skipping excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel in the extended format.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 5 of the presentinvention, for any non-contiguous secondary carrier configured for aterminal, the network-side device may determine carrier configurationinformation such as a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration anda channel listening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier,and a channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the non-contiguous secondarycarrier, and send the determined carrier configuration information tothe terminal, so that the terminal determines a special subframe in thenon-contiguous secondary carrier according to the received carrierconfiguration information, and uses all symbols except gap symbols inthe special subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receives or decodes the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the special subframe according to the determined symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currentlyexisting problem that resource utilization is low because a gap symbolcaused by a CCA cannot be excluded from an entire subframe by a terminalis resolved, and channel utilization is improved if a channel isdiscontinuously occupied.

In addition, for any carrier configured for a terminal, the network-sidedevice may transmit, to the terminal, indication information aboutwhether a common channel is included in the carrier, so that when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to the received indication information about whether thecommon channel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. Inthis way, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increasedbecause a terminal still excludes, according to a specific locationoccupied by a common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel ina secondary carrier in which no corresponding common channel isconfigured, is resolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility ofexcluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel,an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency ofreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal isachieved.

Embodiment 6

Embodiment 6 of the present invention provides a network-side device,where the network-side device is a network-side entity device based on asame inventive conception as the network-side device in Embodiment 2 ofthe present invention. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is aschematic structural diagram of the network-side device in Embodiment 6of the present invention. The network-side device may include componentssuch as a processor 71 and a transmitter 72.

The processor 71 may be configured to determine first carrierconfiguration information of a first carrier of a terminal, where thefirst carrier configuration information includes any one or more typesof the following information: system broadcast information of the firstcarrier, where the system broadcast information can indicate that thefirst carrier includes a common channel, where the common channelincludes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a referencesignal; first indication information, where the first indicationinformation is used to indicate that the first carrier does not includea common channel; or second indication information, where the secondindication information is used to indicate that a common channel used inthe first carrier is a common channel in an extended format.

The transmitter 72 may be configured to send the first carrierconfiguration information determined by the processor 71 to theterminal, so that the terminal performs the following operationaccording to the received first carrier configuration information:determining whether the first carrier includes the common channel, andwhen a determining result is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when a determiningresult is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in asubframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, from symbols that canbe occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel; or determining whether the commonchannel in the extended format is used in the first carrier, and when adetermining result is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, excluding, from symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel in the extended format; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 6 of the presentinvention, for any carrier configured for a terminal, the network-sidedevice may transmit, to the terminal, indication information aboutwhether a common channel is included in the carrier, so that when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to the received indication information about whether thecommon channel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. Inthis way, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increasedbecause a terminal still excludes, according to a specific locationoccupied by a common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel ina secondary carrier in which no corresponding common channel isconfigured, is resolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility ofexcluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel,an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency ofreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal isachieved.

Embodiment 7

Embodiment 7 of the present invention provides a terminal, where theterminal is a terminal entity device based on a same inventiveconception as the terminal in Embodiment 3 of the present invention.Specifically, as shown in FIG. 8, FIG. 8 is a schematic structuraldiagram of the terminal in Embodiment 7 of the present invention. Theterminal may include components such as a receiver 81 and a processor82.

The receiver 81 may be configured to obtain first carrier configurationinformation of a first secondary carrier, where the first secondarycarrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and the first carrier configurationinformation includes a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration anda channel listening duration of the first secondary carrier, and furtherincludes a channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the first secondary carrier.

The processor 82 may be configured to determine a special subframe inthe first secondary carrier according to the first carrier configurationinformation obtained by the receiver 81, where the special subframeincludes all or some of gap symbols, and the gap symbols are symbolsthat are completely or partly occupied by the channel listeningduration; and use all symbols except the gap symbols in the determinedspecial subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the special subframe according to the determined symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

Specifically, the first carrier configuration information may begenerally configured and sent by a network-side device such as a basestation to the terminal. Certainly, it should be noted that, the firstcarrier configuration information may also be predefined according to aspecified rule and stored in the terminal, which is not limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Further, when the first carrier configuration information is sent to theterminal by the network-side device, the first carrier configurationinformation may be transmitted to the terminal by the network-sidedevice by using any one or more types of the following signaling: an RRCmessage, a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layer signaling, or thelike. In addition, any two pieces of information included in the firstcarrier configuration information may be transmitted to the terminal bythe network-side device by using same or different messages. Inaddition, any two pieces of information included in the first carrierconfiguration information may be transmitted to the terminal by thenetwork-side device at a same time point or different time points, whichis not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Further, the processor 82 may be specifically configured to determine achannel occupancy end time point or a channel listening start time pointof the first secondary carrier according to the maximum continuouschannel occupancy duration, the channel listening duration, and thechannel occupancy start reference time point and/or the channellistening start reference time point included in the first carrierconfiguration information, use M symbols after the determined channeloccupancy end time point or the determined channel listening start timepoint as the gap symbols, and use the subframe that includes all or somesymbols of the M symbols as the special subframe, where the M symbolsare determined according to the channel listening duration, and M is apositive integer that is greater than or equal to 1.

Further, ending of channel occupancy of the first secondary carrier maybe limited to a subframe boundary, or ending is not limited to asubframe boundary, and when ending of channel occupancy of the firstsecondary carrier is limited to the subframe boundary, correspondingsubframe boundary information such as subframe boundary information of aprimary carrier or subframe boundary information of a second secondarycarrier of the terminal needs to be obtained. Therefore,correspondingly, when ending of channel occupancy of the first secondarycarrier is limited to the subframe boundary, the terminal (which may bespecifically the processor 82) further needs to perform subframeboundary detection to determine subframe boundary information such assubframe boundary information of the primary carrier or subframeboundary information of the second secondary carrier of the terminal.

Correspondingly, in this case, the processor 82 may be specificallyconfigured to determine the channel occupancy end time point or thechannel listening start time point of the first secondary carrieraccording to the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration, thechannel listening duration, the channel occupancy start reference timepoint and/or the channel listening start reference time point, andsubframe boundary information included in the first carrierconfiguration information, use the M symbols after the determinedchannel occupancy end time point or the determined channel listeningstart time point as the gap symbols, and use the subframe that includesall or some symbols of the M symbols as the special subframe.

Further, after the gap symbols and the corresponding special subframeare determined, processing may be performed on the corresponding specialsubframe. Specifically, the processor 82 may be specifically configuredto: if it is determined that the first carrier configuration informationcarries symbol location indication information used to indicate a PDSCHstart symbol location, use, according to the PDSCH start symbol locationindicated in the symbol location indication information, each non-gapsymbol after the PDSCH start symbol location in the special subframe asa symbol that can be occupied by the PDSCH; or may be specificallyconfigured to read a PCFICH from a first symbol of the special subframe,determine, according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH, and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDSCH; or may be specifically configured toread a PCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe,determine, according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH, and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDSCH.

It should be noted that, if it is determined that the first carrierconfiguration information does not carry symbol location indicationinformation used to indicate a PDSCH start symbol location, theprocessor 82 may be specifically configured to: for any specialsubframe, read a PCFICH from a first symbol of the special subframe orread a PCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe, anddetermine, according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH, and use all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDSCH.

Further, it should be noted that, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, for any special subframe, when it is determined that allsymbols in the special subframe are gap symbols, that is, the channellistening duration may occupy a duration occupied by the entiresubframe, the processor 82 may be further configured to stopcorresponding receiving or decoding performed on the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the special subframe.

Further, the terminal may further include a monitor 83.

The monitor 83 may be configured to: for any gap symbol, perform energydetection on the gap symbol; and/or configured to monitor whether acarrier release message for the first secondary carrier is received fromthe network-side device.

The processor 82 may be further configured to: for any gap symbol, whenit is determined that energy of the gap symbol detected by the monitor83 is higher than a specified energy threshold, stop receiving ordecoding the special subframe that includes all or some symbols of thegap symbols; or when the monitor 83 detects that the carrier releasemessage for the first secondary carrier is received from thenetwork-side device, further configured to stop a data receiving ordecoding operation performed on the first secondary carrier.

Further, the receiver 81 may be further configured to receive secondcarrier configuration information delivered for the first secondarycarrier by the network-side device, where the second carrierconfiguration information includes any one or more types of thefollowing information: system broadcast information of the firstsecondary carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first secondary carrier includes a common channel, where thecommon channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first secondarycarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first secondary carrier is a commonchannel in an extended format.

The processor 82 may be further configured to: determine, according tothe second carrier configuration information, whether the firstsecondary carrier includes the common channel, and when a determiningresult is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, exclude, from the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skip excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or may be furtherconfigured to determine, according to the second carrier configurationinformation, whether the common channel in the extended format is usedin the first secondary carrier, and when a determining result is yes,when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe inthe first secondary carrier, exclude, from the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format; or when a determiningresult is no, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, skip excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

Specifically, the processor 82 may be specifically configured to: if itis determined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe first indication information, or it is determined that the secondcarrier configuration information does not include the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first secondary carrier does not includethe common channel; or may be specifically configured to: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the first indication information, or it is determined that thesecond carrier configuration information includes the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first secondary carrier includes thecommon channel.

Similarly, the processor 82 may be specifically configured to: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe second indication information, determine that the common channel inthe extended format is used in the first secondary carrier; or may bespecifically configured to: if it is determined that the second carrierconfiguration information does not include the second indicationinformation, determine that a common channel in a non-extended format isused in the first secondary carrier.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 7 of the presentinvention, for any non-contiguous secondary carrier, the terminal candetermine a special subframe in the non-contiguous secondary carrieraccording to a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and achannel listening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, anda channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the non-contiguous secondarycarrier that are obtained, where the special subframe includes all orsome of gap symbols occupied by the channel listening duration, and forany special subframe, use all symbols except the gap symbols in thespecial subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the special subframe according to the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currently existing problemthat resource utilization is low because a gap symbol caused by a CCAcannot be excluded from an entire subframe is resolved, and channelutilization is improved if a channel is discontinuously occupied.

In addition, for any carrier, when the terminal receives or decodes aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the carrier, the terminal mayflexibly select to exclude or skip excluding, according to receivedindication information about whether a common channel is included,symbols occupied by the common channel. In this way, a currentlyexisting problem that a throughput is increased because a terminal stillexcludes, according to a specific location occupied by a common channel,symbols occupied by the common channel in a secondary carrier in whichno corresponding common channel is configured, is resolved, and on abasis of improving flexibility of excluding, by the terminal, thesymbols occupied by the common channel, an effect of reducing athroughput loss and improving efficiency of receiving or decoding thePDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal is achieved.

Embodiment 8

Embodiment 8 of the present invention provides a terminal, where theterminal is a terminal entity device based on a same inventiveconception as the terminal in Embodiment 4 of the present invention.Specifically, as shown in FIG. 9, FIG. 9 is a schematic structuraldiagram of the terminal in Embodiment 8 of the present invention. Theterminal may include components such as a receiver 91 and a processor92.

The receiver 91 may be configured to receive first carrier configurationinformation delivered for a first carrier by a network-side device,where the first carrier configuration information includes any one ormore types of the following information: system broadcast information ofthe first carrier, where the system broadcast information can indicatethat the first carrier includes a common channel, where the commonchannel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first carrier doesnot include a common channel; or second indication information, wherethe second indication information is used to indicate that a commonchannel used in the first carrier is a common channel in an extendedformat.

The processor 92 may be configured to determine, according to the firstcarrier configuration information, whether the first carrier includesthe common channel, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or when adetermining result is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skip excluding, from symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or determine, according to thefirst carrier configuration information, whether the common channel inthe extended format is used in the first carrier, and when a determiningresult is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in asubframe in the first carrier, exclude, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format; or when a determiningresult is no, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in asubframe in the first carrier, skip excluding, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupiedby the common channel in the extended format.

Specifically, the processor 92 may be specifically configured to: if itis determined that the first carrier configuration information includesthe first indication information, or it is determined that the firstcarrier configuration information does not include the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first carrier does not include thecommon channel; or may be specifically configured to: if it isdetermined that the first carrier configuration information does notinclude the first indication information, or it is determined that thefirst carrier configuration information includes the system broadcastinformation, determine that the first carrier includes the commonchannel.

Similarly, the processor 92 may be specifically configured to: if it isdetermined that the first carrier configuration information includes thesecond indication information, determine that the common channel in theextended format is used in the first carrier; or may be specificallyconfigured to: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation does not include the second indication information,determine that a common channel in a non-extended format is used in thefirst carrier.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 8 of the presentinvention, for any carrier configured for the terminal, when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to received indication information about whether a commonchannel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. In thisway, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increased becausea terminal still excludes, according to a specific location occupied bya common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel in a secondarycarrier in which no corresponding common channel is configured, isresolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility of excluding, by theterminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel, an effect ofreducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency of receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal is achieved.

Embodiment 9

Embodiment 9 of the present invention provides a subframe processingmethod that may be applicable to the network-side device in Embodiment 1or Embodiment 5 of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 10, FIG. 10is a schematic flowchart of the subframe processing method in Embodiment9 of the present invention. The subframe processing method may includethe following steps.

Step 101: A network-side device determines first carrier configurationinformation of a first secondary carrier of a terminal, where the firstsecondary carrier is a non-contiguous carrier, and the first carrierconfiguration information includes a maximum continuous channeloccupancy duration and a channel listening duration of the firstsecondary carrier, and further includes a channel occupancy startreference time point of the first secondary carrier and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the first secondary carrier.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, the firstsecondary carrier may generally refer to any non-contiguous secondarycarrier in at least one non-contiguous secondary carrier configured forthe terminal by the network-side device such as a base station. Inaddition, the first secondary carrier may be a carrier in an unlicensedspectrum, an asymmetric carrier, or a single downlink carrier, or thelike. Details are not described in this embodiment of the presentinvention.

Further, it should be noted that, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, the determined channel occupancy start reference time pointof the first secondary carrier may generally refer to a channeloccupancy start point when the first secondary carrier occupies achannel at any time, and the determined channel listening startreference time point of the first secondary carrier may generally referto a channel listening start time point at any time of channel listeningafter the first secondary carriers begins to occupy the channel, whichis not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Step 102: The network-side device transmits the determined first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal, so that the terminal performsthe following operations according to the received first carrierconfiguration information: determining a special subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, where the special subframe includes all or some ofgap symbols, and the gap symbols are symbols that are completely orpartly occupied by the channel listening duration; and using all symbolsexcept the gap symbols in the special subframe as symbols that can beoccupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, and correspondingly receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the special subframe according tothe determined symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH.

Specifically, the network-side device may transmit the determined firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal by using any one ormore types of the following signaling: an RRC message, a MAC layer PDUmessage, or physical layer signaling. In addition, the network-sidedevice may transmit any two pieces of information included in the firstcarrier configuration information to the terminal by using same ordifferent messages. In addition, the network-side device may transmitany two pieces of information included in the first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal at a same time point ordifferent time points, which is not limited in this embodiment of thepresent invention.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, before thetransmitting the determined first carrier configuration information tothe terminal, the method may further include: determining whether thefirst secondary carrier is a cross-scheduled carrier, and if adetermining result is yes, designating a PDSCH start symbol location forthe first secondary carrier.

Correspondingly, the transmitting the determined first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal may include: when it isdetermined that the first secondary carrier is a cross-scheduledcarrier, transmitting, to the terminal, the first carrier configurationinformation carrying symbol location indication information used toindicate the PDSCH start symbol location, so that after the terminaldetermines the special subframe in the first secondary carrier accordingto the first carrier configuration information, the terminal uses,according to the PDSCH start symbol location indicated in the symbollocation indication information, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCHstart symbol location in the special subframe as a symbol that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, after thedetermining first carrier configuration information of a first secondarycarrier, the method may further include: monitoring whether a channelcorresponding to the first secondary carrier is occupied by anothernetwork-side device in a time period corresponding to the channellistening duration; and if a monitoring result is yes, transmitting acarrier release message to the terminal, so that the terminal stops,according to the carrier release message, a data receiving or decodingoperation performed on the first secondary carrier.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the method mayfurther include: determining second carrier configuration information ofthe first secondary carrier, where the second carrier configurationinformation may include any one or more types of the followinginformation: system broadcast information of the first secondarycarrier, where the system broadcast information can indicate that thefirst secondary carrier includes a common channel, where the commonchannel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or areference signal; first indication information, where the firstindication information is used to indicate that the first secondarycarrier does not include a common channel; or second indicationinformation, where the second indication information is used to indicatethat a common channel used in the first secondary carrier is a commonchannel in an extended format; and transmitting the determined secondcarrier configuration information to the terminal, so that the terminalperforms the following operation according to the received secondcarrier configuration information: determining whether the firstsecondary carrier includes the common channel, and when a determiningresult is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding, from the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or determining whetherthe common channel in the extended format is used in the first secondarycarrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel in the extended format; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 9 of the presentinvention, for any non-contiguous secondary carrier configured for aterminal, a network-side device may determine carrier configurationinformation such as a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration anda channel listening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier,and a channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the non-contiguous secondarycarrier, and send the determined carrier configuration information tothe terminal, so that the terminal determines a special subframe in thenon-contiguous secondary carrier according to the received carrierconfiguration information, and uses all symbols except gap symbols inthe special subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receives or decodes the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the special subframe according to the determined symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currentlyexisting problem that resource utilization is low because a gap symbolcaused by a CCA cannot be excluded from an entire subframe by a terminalis resolved, and channel utilization is improved if a channel isdiscontinuously occupied.

In addition, for any carrier configured for a terminal, the network-sidedevice may transmit, to the terminal, indication information aboutwhether a common channel is included in the carrier, so that when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to the received indication information about whether thecommon channel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. Inthis way, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increasedbecause a terminal still excludes, according to a specific locationoccupied by a common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel ina secondary carrier in which no corresponding common channel isconfigured, is resolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility ofexcluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel,an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency ofreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal isachieved.

Embodiment 10

Embodiment 10 of the present invention provides a subframe processingmethod that may be applicable to the network-side device in Embodiment 2or Embodiment 6 of the present invention. The subframe processing methodmay include the following steps.

Step 1: A network-side device determines first carrier configurationinformation of a first carrier of a terminal, where the first carrierconfiguration information includes any one or more types of thefollowing information: system broadcast information of the firstcarrier, where the system broadcast information can indicate that thefirst carrier includes a common channel, where the common channelincludes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a referencesignal; first indication information, where the first indicationinformation is used to indicate that the first carrier does not includea common channel; or second indication information, where the secondindication information is used to indicate that a common channel used inthe first carrier is a common channel in an extended format.

Specifically, the network-side device may determine the first carrierconfiguration information of the first carrier when configuring thecorresponding first carrier for the terminal, or may determine the firstcarrier configuration information of the first carrier after configuringthe corresponding first carrier for the terminal, which is not limitedin this embodiment of the present invention.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the first carriermay be any non-contiguous carrier or any contiguous carrier configuredby the network-side device for the terminal, which is also not limitedin this embodiment of the present invention.

Step 2: The network-side device transmits the determined first carrierconfiguration information to the terminal, so that the terminal performsthe following operation according to the received first carrierconfiguration information: determining whether the first carrierincludes the common channel, and when a determining result is yes, whenreceiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the firstcarrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel; or when a determining result is no, when receiving or decodinga PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; ordetermining whether the common channel in the extended format is used inthe first carrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receivingor decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or thePDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in theextended format; or when a determining result is no, when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier,skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channelin the extended format.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 10 of the presentinvention, for any carrier configured for a terminal, a network-sidedevice may transmit, to the terminal, indication information aboutwhether a common channel is included in the carrier, so that when theterminal receives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in thecarrier, the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding,according to the received indication information about whether thecommon channel is included, symbols occupied by the common channel. Inthis way, a currently existing problem that a throughput is increasedbecause a terminal still excludes, according to a specific locationoccupied by a common channel, symbols occupied by the common channel ina secondary carrier in which no corresponding common channel isconfigured, is resolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility ofexcluding, by the terminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel,an effect of reducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency ofreceiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal isachieved.

Embodiment 11

In Embodiment 11 of the present invention, assuming that actions areperformed by the terminal in Embodiment 3 or Embodiment 7 of the presentinvention, the subframe processing method in Embodiment 9 of the presentinvention is further described. As shown in FIG. 11, FIG. 11 is aschematic flowchart of the subframe processing method in Embodiment 11of the present invention. The subframe processing method may include thefollowing steps.

Step 201: A terminal obtains first carrier configuration information ofa first secondary carrier, where the first secondary carrier is anon-contiguous carrier, and the first carrier configuration informationincludes a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and a channellistening duration of the first secondary carrier, and further includesa channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the first secondary carrier.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, the firstcarrier configuration information may be generally configured and sentby a network-side device such as a base station to the terminal.Certainly, it should be noted that, the first carrier configurationinformation may also be predefined according to a specified rule andstored in the terminal, which is not limited in this embodiment of thepresent invention.

Further, when the first carrier configuration information is sent to theterminal by the network-side device, the first carrier configurationinformation may be transmitted to the terminal by the network-sidedevice by using any one or more types of the following signaling: an RRCmessage, a MAC layer PDU message, or physical layer signaling, or thelike. In addition, any two pieces of information included in the firstcarrier configuration information may be transmitted to the terminal bythe network-side device by using same or different messages. Inaddition, any two pieces of information included in the first carrierconfiguration information may be transmitted to the terminal by thenetwork-side device at a same time point or different time points, whichis not limited in this embodiment of the present invention.

Step 202: Determine a special subframe in the first secondary carrieraccording to the obtained first carrier configuration information, wherethe special subframe includes all or some of gap symbols, and the gapsymbols are symbols that are completely or partly occupied by thechannel listening duration.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, thedetermining a special subframe in the first secondary carrier accordingto the obtained first carrier configuration information may include:determining a channel occupancy end time point or a channel listeningstart time point of the first secondary carrier according to informationsuch as the maximum continuous channel occupancy duration, the channellistening duration, and the channel occupancy start reference time pointand/or the channel listening start reference time point included in thefirst carrier configuration information, using M symbols after thedetermined channel occupancy end time point or the determined channellistening start time point as the gap symbols, and using the subframethat includes all or some symbols of the M symbols as the specialsubframe, where the M symbols may be determined according to the channellistening duration, and M is a positive integer that is greater than orequal to 1. Specifically, the M symbols may be specifically one or moresymbols partly or completely occupied by the channel listening duration,which is not further described in this embodiment of the presentinvention.

Further, ending of channel occupancy of the first secondary carrier maybe limited to a subframe boundary, or ending is not limited to asubframe boundary, and when ending of channel occupancy of the firstsecondary carrier is limited to the subframe boundary, correspondingsubframe boundary information such as subframe boundary information of aprimary carrier or subframe boundary information of a second secondarycarrier of the terminal needs to be obtained. Therefore,correspondingly, when ending of channel occupancy of the first secondarycarrier is limited to the subframe boundary, the terminal further needsto perform subframe boundary detection to determine subframe boundaryinformation such as subframe boundary information of the primary carrieror subframe boundary information of the second secondary carrier of theterminal. Correspondingly, the determining a special subframe in thenon-contiguous secondary carrier according to the obtained first carrierconfiguration information may include: determining the channel occupancyend time point or the channel listening start time point of the firstsecondary carrier according to the maximum continuous channel occupancyduration, the channel listening duration, the channel occupancy startreference time point and/or the channel listening start reference timepoint, and detected subframe boundary information included in the firstcarrier configuration information, using the M symbols after thedetermined channel occupancy end time point or the determined channellistening start time point as the gap symbols, and using the subframethat includes all or some symbols of the M symbols as the specialsubframe.

Step 203: Use all symbols except the gap symbols in the special subframeas symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH, andcorrespondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thespecial subframe according to the determined symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH.

Specifically, the using all symbols except the gap symbols in thespecial subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH includes: if it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation carries symbol location indication information used toindicate a PDSCH start symbol location, using, according to the PDSCHstart symbol location indicated in the symbol location indicationinformation, each non-gap symbol after the PDSCH start symbol locationin the special subframe as a symbol that can be occupied by the PDSCH,where the symbol location indication information is sent to the terminalwhen the network-side device determines that the first secondary carrieris a cross-scheduled carrier; or reading a PCFICH from a first symbol ofthe special subframe, determining, according to the PCFICH, the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH, and using all symbols except the gapsymbols and the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH in the specialsubframe as the symbols that can be occupied by the PDSCH; or reading aPCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe, determining,according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH,and using all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

It should be noted that, the terminal may perform the followingoperations when determining that the first carrier configurationinformation does not carry symbol location indication information usedto indicate a PDSCH start symbol location: for any special subframe,reading a PCFICH from a first symbol of the special subframe or readinga PCFICH from an (M+1)^(th) symbol of the special subframe, determining,according to the PCFICH, the symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH,using all symbols except the gap symbols and the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH in the special subframe as the symbols that can beoccupied by the PDSCH.

Further, it should be noted that, in this embodiment of the presentinvention, for any special subframe, when it is determined that allsymbols in the special subframe are gap symbols, that is, the channellistening duration may occupy a duration occupied by the entiresubframe, the terminal may further stop corresponding receiving ordecoding performed on the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the specialsubframe.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the method mayfurther include: for any gap symbol, performing energy detection on thegap symbol, and when determining that detected energy is higher than aspecified energy threshold, stopping receiving or decoding the specialsubframe that includes all or some symbols of the gap symbols; and/or,the method may further include: monitoring whether a carrier releasemessage for the first secondary carrier is received from thenetwork-side device, and if yes, stopping a data receiving or decodingoperation performed on the first secondary carrier.

Further, in this embodiment of the present invention, the method mayfurther include: receiving second carrier configuration informationdelivered for the first secondary carrier by the network-side device,where the second carrier configuration information may include any oneor more types of the following information: system broadcast informationof the first secondary carrier, where the system broadcast informationcan indicate that the first secondary carrier includes a common channel,where the common channel includes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, anSSS, or a reference signal; first indication information, where thefirst indication information is used to indicate that the firstsecondary carrier does not include a common channel; or secondindication information, where the second indication information is usedto indicate that a common channel used in the first secondary carrier isa common channel in an extended format; and determining, according tothe second carrier configuration information, whether the firstsecondary carrier includes the common channel, and when a determiningresult is yes, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH inthe subframe in the first secondary carrier, excluding, from the symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or determining,according to the second carrier configuration information, whether thecommon channel in the extended format is used in the first secondarycarrier, and when a determining result is yes, when receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe in the firstsecondary carrier, excluding, from the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel in the extended format; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe in the first secondary carrier, skipping excluding, from thesymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in thesubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel in the extended format.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, thedetermining, according to the second carrier configuration information,whether the first secondary carrier includes the common channel, mayinclude: if it is determined that the second carrier configurationinformation includes the first indication information, or it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the system broadcast information, determining that the firstsecondary carrier does not include the common channel; or if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the first indication information, or it is determined that thesecond carrier configuration information includes the system broadcastinformation, determining that the first secondary carrier includes thecommon channel.

Similarly, the determining, according to the second carrierconfiguration information, whether the common channel in the extendedformat is used in the first secondary carrier, may include: if it isdetermined that the second carrier configuration information includesthe second indication information, determining that the common channelin the extended format is used in the first secondary carrier; or if itis determined that the second carrier configuration information does notinclude the second indication information, determining that a commonchannel in a non-extended format is used in the first secondary carrier.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 11 of the presentinvention, for any non-contiguous secondary carrier, a terminal candetermine a special subframe in the non-contiguous secondary carrieraccording to a maximum continuous channel occupancy duration and achannel listening duration of the non-contiguous secondary carrier, anda channel occupancy start reference time point and/or a channellistening start reference time point of the non-contiguous secondarycarrier that are obtained, where the special subframe includes all orsome of gap symbols occupied by the channel listening duration, and forany special subframe, use all symbols except the gap symbols in thespecial subframe as symbols that can be occupied by a PDCCH and/or aPDSCH, and correspondingly receive or decode the PDCCH and/or the PDSCHin the special subframe according to the symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH. In this way, a currently existing problemthat resource utilization is low because a gap symbol caused by a CCAcannot be excluded from an entire subframe is resolved, and channelutilization is improved if a channel is discontinuously occupied.

In addition, for any carrier, when the terminal receives or decodes aPDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the carrier, the terminal mayflexibly select to exclude or skip excluding, according to receivedindication information about whether a common channel is included,symbols occupied by the common channel. In this way, a currentlyexisting problem that a throughput is increased because a terminal stillexcludes, according to a specific location occupied by a common channel,symbols occupied by the common channel in a secondary carrier in whichno corresponding common channel is configured, is resolved, and on abasis of improving flexibility of excluding, by the terminal, thesymbols occupied by the common channel, an effect of reducing athroughput loss and improving efficiency of receiving or decoding thePDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal is achieved.

Embodiment 12

In Embodiment 12 of the present invention, assuming that actions areperformed by the terminal in Embodiment 4 or Embodiment 8 of the presentinvention, the subframe processing method in Embodiment 10 of thepresent invention is further described. The subframe processing methodmay include the following steps.

Step 1: A terminal receives first carrier configuration informationdelivered for a first carrier by a network-side device, where the firstcarrier configuration information may include any one or more types ofthe following information: system broadcast information of the firstcarrier, where the system broadcast information can indicate that thefirst carrier includes a common channel, where the common channelincludes any one or more of a PBCH, a PSS, an SSS, or a referencesignal; first indication information, where the first indicationinformation is used to indicate that the first carrier does not includea common channel; or second indication information, where the secondindication information is used to indicate that a common channel used inthe first carrier is a common channel in an extended format.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the first carrier may beany non-contiguous carrier or any contiguous carrier configured by thenetwork-side device for the terminal, which is not limited in thisembodiment of the present invention.

Step 2: Determine, according to the first carrier configurationinformation, whether the first carrier includes the common channel, andwhen a determining result is yes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCHand/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the first carrier, exclude, from symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or when a determining result isno, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe inthe first carrier, skip excluding, from symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel; or determine, according to the first carrierconfiguration information, whether the common channel in the extendedformat is used in the first carrier, and when a determining result isyes, when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe inthe first carrier, exclude, from symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH and/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel in the extended format; or when a determining result is no, whenreceiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the firstcarrier, skip excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCHand/or the PDSCH in the subframe, symbols occupied by the common channelin the extended format.

Specifically, in this embodiment of the present invention, thedetermining, according to the first carrier configuration information,whether the first carrier includes the common channel, may include: ifit is determined that the first carrier configuration informationincludes the first indication information, or it is determined that thefirst carrier configuration information does not include the systembroadcast information, determining that the first carrier does notinclude the common channel; or if it is determined that the firstcarrier configuration information does not include the first indicationinformation, or it is determined that the first carrier configurationinformation includes the system broadcast information, determining thatthe first carrier includes the common channel.

Similarly, the determining, according to the first carrier configurationinformation, whether the common channel in the extended format is usedin the first carrier, may include: if it is determined that the firstcarrier configuration information includes the second indicationinformation, determining that the common channel in the extended formatis used in the first carrier; or if it is determined that the firstcarrier configuration information does not include the second indicationinformation, determining that a common channel in a non-extended formatis used in the first carrier.

That is, in the technical solution of Embodiment 12 of the presentinvention, for any carrier configured for a terminal, when the terminalreceives or decodes a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH in a subframe in the carrier,the terminal may flexibly select to exclude or skip excluding, accordingto received indication information about whether a common channel isincluded, symbols occupied by the common channel. In this way, acurrently existing problem that a throughput is increased because aterminal still excludes, according to a specific location occupied by acommon channel, symbols occupied by the common channel in a secondarycarrier in which no corresponding common channel is configured, isresolved, and on a basis of improving flexibility of excluding, by theterminal, the symbols occupied by the common channel, an effect ofreducing a throughput loss and improving efficiency of receiving ordecoding the PDCCH and/or PDSCH by the terminal is achieved.

A person skilled in the art should understand that the embodiments ofthe present invention may be provided as a method, an apparatus(device), or a computer program product. Therefore, the presentinvention may use a form of hardware only embodiments, software onlyembodiments, or embodiments with a combination of software and hardware.Moreover, the present invention may use a form of a computer programproduct that is implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media(including but not limited to a disk memory, a CD-ROM, an opticalmemory, and the like) that include computer-usable program code.

The present invention is described with reference to the flowchartsand/or block diagrams of the method, the apparatus (device), and thecomputer program product according to the embodiments of the presentinvention. It should be understood that computer program instructionsmay be used to implement each process and/or each block in theflowcharts and/or the block diagrams and a combination of a processand/or a block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams. Thesecomputer program instructions may be provided for a general-purposecomputer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor ofany other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, sothat the instructions executed by a computer or a processor of any otherprogrammable data processing device generate an apparatus forimplementing a specific function in one or more processes in theflowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may be stored in a computer readablememory that can instruct the computer or any other programmable dataprocessing device to work in a specific manner, so that the instructionsstored in the computer readable memory generate an artifact thatincludes an instruction apparatus. The instruction apparatus implementsa specific function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or inone or more blocks in the block diagrams.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computeror another programmable data processing device, so that a series ofoperations and steps are performed on the computer or the anotherprogrammable device, thereby generating computer-implemented processing.Therefore, the instructions executed on the computer or the anotherprogrammable device provide steps for implementing a specific functionin one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocksin the block diagrams.

Although some preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed, persons skilled in the art can make changes and modificationsto these embodiments once they learn the basic inventive concept.Therefore, the following claims are intended to be construed as to coverthe preferred embodiments and all changes and modifications fallingwithin the scope of the present invention.

Obviously, a person skilled in the art can make various modificationsand variations to the present invention without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention. The present invention isintended to cover these modifications and variations provided that theyfall within the scope of protection defined by the following claims andtheir equivalent technologies.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a processor; and anon-transitory storage medium including executable instructions, whereinthe executable instructions include instructions for: receivingconfiguration information of a first carrier from a network device,wherein the configuration information comprises: system broadcastinformation of the first carrier, wherein the system broadcastinformation indicates that the first carrier includes a common channel;first indication information, wherein the first indication informationindicates that the first carrier does not include the common channel; orsecond indication information, wherein the second indication informationindicates that the common channel in the first carrier has an extendedformat; determining, according to the configuration information, whetherthe first carrier comprises or does not comprise the common channel,wherein the common channel includes a physical broadcast channel (PBCH),a primary synchronization channel (PSS), a secondary synchronizationchannel (SSS), or a reference signal; and performing the following: inresponse to determining that the common channel is included in the firstcarrier, and when receiving or decoding a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in a firstsubframe of the first carrier, excluding, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the first subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel; or in response to determining that thecommon channel is not included in the first carrier, and when receivingor decoding a PDCCH and a PDSCH in a second subframe in the firstcarrier, skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH or the PDSCH in the second subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel; or determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the common channel having the extended format isused in the first carrier, and performing the following: in response todetermining that the common channel having the extended format is usedin the first carrier, and when receiving or decoding a PDCCH or a PDSCHin a third subframe in the first carrier, excluding, from symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the third subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel having the extended format; or inresponse to determining that the common channel having the extendedformat is not used in the first carrier, and when receiving or decodinga PDCCH or a PDSCH in a fourth subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCHin the fourth subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel havingthe extended format.
 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: theconfiguration information comprises the system broadcast information ofthe first carrier; determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the first carrier comprises or does not comprisethe common channel comprises determining, according to the configurationinformation, that the first carrier comprises the common channel; andthe executable instructions include instructions for: in response todetermining that the common channel is included in the first carrier,and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the firstsubframe of the first carrier, excluding, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the first subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 1,wherein: the configuration information comprises the first indicationinformation; determining, according to the configuration information,whether the first carrier comprises or does not comprise the commonchannel comprises determining, according to the configurationinformation, that the first carrier does not comprise the commonchannel; and the executable instructions include instructions for: inresponse to determining that the common channel is not included in thefirst carrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and the PDSCH inthe second subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the secondsubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel.
 4. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein: the configuration information comprisesthe second indication information; determining, according to theconfiguration information, whether the first carrier comprises or doesnot comprise the common channel comprises determining, according to theconfiguration information, that the first carrier comprises the commonchannel; and determining, according to the configuration information,whether the common channel having the extended format is used in thefirst carrier comprises determining that the common channel having theextended format is used in the first carrier; and the executableinstructions include instructions for: in response to determining thatthe common channel having the extended format is used in the firstcarrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in thethird subframe in the first carrier, excluding, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the third subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel having the extended format.
 5. Theapparatus according to claim 1, wherein: the configuration informationcomprises the second indication information; determining, according tothe configuration information, whether the first carrier comprises ordoes not comprise the common channel comprises determining, according tothe configuration information, that the first carrier comprises thecommon channel; and determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the common channel having the extended format isused in the first carrier comprises determining that the common channelhaving the extended format is not used in the first carrier; and theexecutable instructions include instructions for: in response todetermining that the common channel having the extended format is notused in the first carrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH orthe PDSCH in the fourth subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCHin the fourth subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel havingthe extended format.
 6. A method, comprising: receiving, by a terminal,configuration information of a first carrier from a network device,wherein the configuration information comprises: system broadcastinformation of the first carrier, wherein the system broadcastinformation indicates that the first carrier comprises a common channel;first indication information, wherein the first indication informationindicates that the first carrier does not comprise the common channel;or second indication information, wherein the second indicationinformation indicates that the common channel used in the first carrierhas an extended format; determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the first carrier comprises or does not comprisethe common channel, wherein the common channel comprises a physicalbroadcast channel (PBCH), a primary synchronization channel (PSS), asecondary synchronization channel SSS, or a reference signal; andperforming the following: in response to determining that the commonchannel is included in the first carrier, and when receiving or decodinga physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH) in a first subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCHin the first subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel; or inresponse to determining that the common channel is not included in thefirst carrier, and when receiving or decoding a PDCCH and/or a PDSCH ina second subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, from symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the second subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel; or determining, according to theconfiguration information, whether the common channel having theextended format is used in the first carrier, and performing thefollowing: in response to determining that the common channel having theextended format is used in the first carrier, and when receiving ordecoding a PDCCH or a PDSCH in a third subframe in the first carrier,excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCHin the third subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel having theextended format, or in response to determining that the common channelhaving the extended format is not used in the first carrier, and whenreceiving or decoding a PDCCH or a PDSCH in a fourth subframe in thefirst carrier, skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied bythe PDCCH or the PDSCH in the fourth subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel having the extended format.
 7. The method according toclaim 6, wherein: the configuration information comprises the systembroadcast information of the first carrier; determining, according tothe configuration information, whether the first carrier comprises ordoes not comprise the common channel comprises determining, according tothe configuration information, that the first carrier comprises thecommon channel; and the method includes: in response to determining thatthe common channel is included in the first carrier, and when receivingor decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the first subframe of the firstcarrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH orthe PDSCH in the first subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel.8. The method according to claim 6, wherein: the configurationinformation comprises the first indication information; determining,according to the configuration information, whether the first carriercomprises or does not comprise the common channel comprises determining,according to the configuration information, that the first carrier doesnot comprise the common channel; and the method includes: in response todetermining that the common channel is not included in the firstcarrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and the PDSCH in thesecond subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, from symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the second subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel.
 9. The method according to claim6, wherein: the configuration information comprises the secondindication information; determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the first carrier comprises or does not comprisethe common channel comprises determining, according to the configurationinformation, that the first carrier comprises the common channel; anddetermining, according to the configuration information, whether thecommon channel having the extended format is used in the first carriercomprises determining that the common channel having the extended formatis used in the first carrier; and the method includes: in response todetermining that the common channel having the extended format is usedin the first carrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH or thePDSCH in the third subframe in the first carrier, excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the thirdsubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel having the extendedformat.
 10. The method according to claim 6, wherein: the configurationinformation comprises the second indication information; determining,according to the configuration information, whether the first carriercomprises or does not comprise the common channel comprises determining,according to the configuration information, that the first carriercomprises the common channel; and determining, according to theconfiguration information, whether the common channel having theextended format is used in the first carrier comprises determining thatthe common channel having the extended format is not used in the firstcarrier; and the method includes: in response to determining that thecommon channel having the extended format is not used in the firstcarrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in thefourth subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, from symbolsthat can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the fourth subframe,symbols occupied by the common channel having the extended format.
 11. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium, comprising executableinstructions for execution by a computer, wherein the executableinstructions comprise instructions for: receiving configurationinformation of a first carrier from a network device, wherein theconfiguration information comprises: system broadcast information of thefirst carrier, wherein the system broadcast information indicates thatthe first carrier includes a common channel; first indicationinformation, wherein the first indication information indicates that thefirst carrier does not include the common channel; or second indicationinformation, wherein the second indication information indicates thatthe common channel in the first carrier has an extended format; anddetermining, according to the configuration information, whether thefirst carrier comprises or does not comprise the common channel, whereinthe common channel includes a physical broadcast channel (PBCH), aprimary synchronization channel (PSS), a secondary synchronizationchannel (SSS), or a reference signal; and performing the following: inresponse to determining that the common channel is included in the firstcarrier, and when receiving or decoding a physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in a firstsubframe in the first carrier, excluding, from symbols that can beoccupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the first subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel; or in response to determining that thecommon channel is not included in the first carrier, and when receivingor decoding a PDCCH or a PDSCH in a second subframe in the firstcarrier, skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH or the PDSCH in the second subframe, symbols occupied by thecommon channel; or determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the common channel having the extended format isused in the first carrier, and performing the following: in response todetermining that the common channel having the extended format is usedin the first carrier, and when receiving or decoding a PDCCH or a PDSCHin a third subframe in the first carrier, excluding, from symbols thatcan be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the third subframe, symbolsoccupied by the common channel having the extended format; or inresponse to determining that the common channel having the extendedformat is not used in the first carrier, and when receiving or decodinga PDCCH or a PDSCH in a fourth subframe in the first carrier, skippingexcluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCHin the fourth subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel havingthe extended format.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 11, wherein: the configuration informationcomprises the system broadcast information of the first carrier;determining, according to the configuration information, whether thefirst carrier comprises or does not comprise the common channelcomprises determining, according to the configuration information, thatthe first carrier comprises the common channel; and the executableinstructions comprise instructions for: in response to determining thatthe common channel is included in the first carrier, and when receivingor decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the first subframe of the firstcarrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH orthe PDSCH in the first subframe, symbols occupied by the common channel.13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according toclaim 11, wherein: the configuration information comprises the firstindication information; determining, according to the configurationinformation, whether the first carrier comprises or does not comprisethe common channel comprises determining, according to the configurationinformation, that the first carrier does not comprise the commonchannel; and the executable instructions comprise instructions for: inresponse to determining that the common channel is not included in thefirst carrier, and when receiving or decoding the PDCCH and the PDSCH inthe second subframe in the first carrier, skipping excluding, fromsymbols that can be occupied by the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the secondsubframe, symbols occupied by the common channel.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein: theconfiguration information comprises the second indication information;determining, according to the configuration information, whether thefirst carrier comprises or does not comprise the common channelcomprises determining, according to the configuration information, thatthe first carrier comprises the common channel; and determining,according to the configuration information, whether the common channelhaving the extended format is used in the first carrier comprisesdetermining that the common channel having the extended format is usedin the first carrier; and the executable instructions compriseinstructions for: in response to determining that the common channelhaving the extended format is used in the first carrier, and whenreceiving or decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the third subframe inthe first carrier, excluding, from symbols that can be occupied by thePDCCH or the PDSCH in the third subframe, symbols occupied by the commonchannel having the extended format.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium according to claim 11, wherein: theconfiguration information comprises the second indication information;determining, according to the configuration information, whether thefirst carrier comprises or does not comprise the common channelcomprises determining, according to the configuration information, thatthe first carrier comprises the common channel; and determining,according to the configuration information, whether the common channelhaving the extended format is used in the first carrier comprisesdetermining that the common channel having the extended format is notused in the first carrier; and the executable instructions includeinstructions for: in response to determining that the common channelhaving the extended format is not used in the first carrier, and whenreceiving or decoding the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the fourth subframe inthe first carrier, skipping excluding, from symbols that can be occupiedby the PDCCH or the PDSCH in the fourth subframe, symbols occupied bythe common channel having the extended format.